Historical Fictionistas discussion

I have the book:
Stories of Shakespeare,
which is for children, but I'd like to know if there is something similar for adults.
I'm looking for a book which writes about his plays as a novel with the story of events that happened.
Anything similar to the way historical fiction novels are written

Lambs tales from
Shakespeare

Tales from Shakespeare
More Tales from Shakespeare
These?

Lambs' Tales are probably what Pauline meant. They are bowdlerized versions for children. There are modern retellings of Shakespeare plays intended for adults, but they usually contain the author's interpretation and additional speculations about the characters.

It only covers one play, but Macbeth, narrated by Richard Armitage, is an amazingly good audio book that novelizes the play. Or you can read it. :) But I listened to Armitage and he was great.

I may be mis-understanding you here Pauline, but I can think of one book called Macbeth the King by the Scottish author Nigel Tranter. Its quite old, but from what I can recall it is fairly close to Shakespeare's play, but goes into much greater depth. Is this what you are looking for?

I can't think of any equivalent books that re-tell some of his classic plays, such as Hamlet or King Lear, or any of his comedies, but that may just be my ignorance. But once you get into his historical plays, there are many authors covering the same time periods.

I haven't read this, so I don't know how much of it is the storyline of the play, but Tells the story of Juliet, and Romeo.

Tania wrote: "I haven't read this, so I don't know how much of it is the storyline of the play, but Tells the story of Juliet, and Romeo."

This contextualizes the play historically which Shakespeare didn't do. Shakespeare never specified the year that Romeo and Juliet took place. Robin Maxwell, the author of O, Juliet,made a choice about the period and it works for this novel, but keep in mind that it was Shakespeare's choice to be vague about when it was taking place. This is why people in all eras have been able to relate to this story. There are many novels that expand on Shakespeare's plays in this way, and others that take a different approach to Shakespeare plays and are radically different from Shakespeare.

David Blixt has written a series of novels around Romeo and Juliet. He was a finalist for the M.M. Bennetts Award this year. And Dorothy Dunnett's King Hereafter is about Macbeth.

By the way, it's not exactly based on any of the plays, but Pamela Mingle's Kissing Shakespeare is absolutely adorable.

The Third Witch Retells Macbeth from the point of view of one of the witches. Obviously it takes quite a few liberties but I thought it was rather imaginative and engaging.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions, I am very grateful.
I've ordered this book and I'll let you all know what I think about it in case I've also given you ideas about reading Shakespeare's plays as novels, or narratives.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0719502284...

I think I'll also order the one about Macbeth by Nigel Tranter. It's a play that reminds me of a Greek tragedy and I'm sure I'll enjoy the book too.