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Helena Hann-Basquiat
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Penelope: Countess of Arcadia Paperback – March 18, 2015

by Helena Hann-Basquiat (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars 4 ratings
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The Empress is a villain, and like all villains, lies in wait to exact her vengeance on an unsuspecting Penelope, who had challenged her nearly a year past. The Empress had lied most grievously, and the Countess had called for her head on a stick. Quite frankly, she deserved it. She deserved a reckoning of truly Shakespearean proportions... Penelope is a Shakespearean style play, blending tragedy and comedy, in a clever homage to the Bard.
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  1. Print length
    144 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    March 18, 2015
  4. Dimensions
    5 x 0.36 x 8 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    0994041942
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0994041944
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About the Author

Helena Hann-Basquiat dabbles in whatever she can get her hands into just to say that she has, including, it seems, Shakespearean-style theatre. She is the author of JESSICA, a meta-fictional novella, as well as Memoirs of a Dilettante Volumes One and Two. Helena writes strange, dark fiction under the name Jessica B. Bell. Follow her writing at www.helenahb.com and www.whereisjessica.com

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Dilettante Publishing (March 18, 2015)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 144 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0994041942
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0994041944
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.7 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.36 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    5.0 out of 5 stars 4 ratings

About the author

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Helena Hann-Basquiat

Helena Hann-Basquiat

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Helena Hann-Basquiat dabbles in whatever she can get her hands into just to say that she has.

She's written cookbooks, ten volumes of horrible poetry that she bound herself in leather she tanned poorly from cows she raised herself and then slaughtered because she was bored with farming.

She has an entire portfolio of macaroni art that she's never shown anyone, because she doesn't think that the general populace, or, "the great unwashed masses" as she calls them, would understand the statement she was trying to make with them.

Some people attribute her with inventing the Ampersand, but she has never made that claim herself.

She was completely self-educated in a private institute in the Catskills where she majored in Pop Culture and Unpopular Music. She wrote her doctorate thesis on the films of John Hughes, and awarded herself a doctorate, though it's not generally recognized.

She enjoys short walks on the beach and getting smashed on Grey Goose and grapefruit juice and then staring at the SUN studios logo until it looks like it's alternately setting and rising.

She was born in the small village of Bichon-Frisse near the France/Switzerland border, daughter of a part-time cello teacher and a painter -- well, her mother painted nails at the Happy Time Nail Salon -- so that's sort of painting. And that bit about her father being a part-time cello teacher, that was not so much of a lie as a typo -- it should read Jello teacher -- he taught Home Economics three days a week at the local high school, and really was only called upon for his culinary expertise in the medium of Jello.

Helena is currently working on a rock opera based on the life of Cecil B. DeMille, tentatively titled "Cecil B. Goode", or perhaps "The Ten Commandments of Love"

When Helena is not writing ironic, self-deprecating loosely autobiographical post-modern memoirs, she writes disturbingly dark fiction under the name Jessica B. Bell.

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Sarina
    5.0 out of 5 stars To read or not to?
    Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    To be or not to be? To read or not to? That is no question, not if you enjoy Shakespeare with a Helena Hann-Basquiat twist to it. If for nothing else read it for the delicious Shakespearean style insults. Read it for the modern mix of old English. Write it on the wall of your “book of Face”.
    And read it because you as the audience has a part to play in this Shakespearean style play. To say the least, I loved it.
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  • Mirjana
    5.0 out of 5 stars Shakespearian tongue twister
    Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2015
    Penelope Countess of Arcadia is a Shakespearean style play, starring our favorite Countess Penelope (It’s Penny damnit!), Helena and the gruesome, sleazy Empress Claudia, alongside other characters.

    Not many writers would dare and pursue the wanderlust of their Shakespearean passions, beyond sonnets, and it is what makes this book intriguing from the start. The masterful use of language makes you both dizzy and enflamed, and it does make the reader want to speak and write in the same way after the last page is read. This is why I think writing books like these is important, because it inspires learning and exploring and also opens venue in which writing and storytelling alike can branch out into other directions, like theater and music.

    The other reason why I think this book is important is because it depicts a situation that happens way to often in real life. It uses satire and tongue twisting rhymes, the honest bad words to paint the true faces of a myriad of bad people. I believe that by reading about situations and people in this way, it makes our minds more apt and willing to understand the situation and deal with it.

    Helena and Penelope are already developed characters we love to follow and stalk through various stories, adventures and misfortunes, but Helena has given other characters the same zeal in their wrong-doing and good-willing. The rhymes, the lines, the tones and the posture make you read with ease, waiting for Empress Claudia to finally be put in her place. I especially liked the back and forth between the amorous couple of Dante and Beatrice.

    This book also gives a better insight into the character of Penelope, which I as a reader personally craved. This was really Penelope’s moment to shine, and shine she did.

    This book, this story of the vortex of justice and injustice, of thieves and lovers and friends and law – like a bridge between the time when Shakespeare was still holding a quill with his own hand and our precious, dirty 21st century, inspires, teaches and most of all, provides passion and fun with its pages.
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  • Marie Ann Bailey
    5.0 out of 5 stars A Play Worthy of Shakespeare (The Man Did Have a Sense of Humor)
    Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2015
    I am struggling to start this review because I am truly in awe of the book itself. I own the paperback version and so have the delight of flipping back and forth, admiring the (literal) character sketches, the layout of the book with it's Prologue, Argument, Acts, and Epilogue. Yes, call me weird, but often times I enjoy a book without actually reading it. But this I read as well.

    I don't think there is any literary form that Helena Hann-Basquiat can not do. Everything she sets her mind to results in near perfection, if not perfection itself. She calls herself a dilettante, one who "dabbles." Perhaps Renaissance lady might be better, given the wide range and depth of her talents. But this book. Well, it's one thing to write in one's native tongue and another to put forth a whole book in Shakespearean tongue with all the twists, puns, lyricism, and sharp wit that Shakespeare himself was known for. The plot is commonplace: a humiliation and betrayal suffered by a college co-ed by another student. Anyone who's been a student or a parent of a college student has probably either suffered similar situations, or been a sad, helpless witness. And people get over it, eventually. But to do justice to her niece, Penelope, Helena takes it upon herself to set the record straight, replete with appropriate justice, through the conceits of a Shakespearean play. The evil-doer (The Empress) eventually is brought down, but it's the literary journey to that downfall that the reader will delight in.

    The best justice is that this is a record that will last forever, even if Helena stretches the story to make the reader more likely to "shake with righteous glee." That we have characters such as Dante, Beatrice, and Yorrick, is icing on the cake of this contemporary play. Kenneth Branagh would indeed do well to option the movie rights.
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  • Pthomas
    5.0 out of 5 stars The Bard Would Be So Proud!
    Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2015
    Penelope Countess of Arcadia is a fun, and hilarious short story. Helena Hann-Basquiat delivers the laughs and verbal punches with all the eloquence that iambic pentameter can bring to the printed word. The story is actually written in play form, true to the Bard's style, and deserves to be read out loud with all the characters given a voice. Helena has captured the best of Shakespeare as she recounts the tale of her niece, Penelope (It's Penny, damn it!), who is wrongly accused of a crime, the ensuing quest to discover the truth, and ultimately, the justice that is best served cold.

    I highly recommend this book if you want to enjoy a fun and intelligent frolic in play form.
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