Spurred by witches' prophecy and his wife's ambition, a Scottish general murders his king and is consumed by the crown he steals.
Books that mention Macbeth (32)
The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt: “Zhong calls this the Macbeth effect, named for Lady Macbeth's obsession with water and cleansing after”
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami: “No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red. A line from Macbeth.”
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte: “‘One night, however, during one of our orgies—one of our high festivals, I mean—he glided in, like the ghost in “Macbeth,” and seated himself, as usual, a little back from the table, in the chair we always placed for “the spectre,” whether it chose to fill it or not.”
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens: “Mr George Sampson shortly afterwards took his leave, accompanied by Miss Lavinia with a candle as far as the hall, and without a candle as far as the garden gate; Mrs Wilfer, washing her hands of the Boffins, went to bed after the manner of Lady Macbeth; and R.”
Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence: “And later, Miriam drew them together, and they read Macbeth out of penny books, taking parts.”
Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens: “…with effervescent noises; and where the most domestic and confidential garments of coachmen and their wives and families, usually hung, like Macbeth's banners, on the outward walls.”
Armadale by Wilkie Collins: “I may say, like Macbeth: 'Why, so, being gone, I am a man again!”
The Rise of Silas Lapham by William Dean Howells: “I always thought there was nothing but 'Hamlet' and 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'Macbeth' and 'Richard III.”
First Love by Ivan Turgenev: “I have cited the verses from “Macbeth,” and those witches, phantoms, visions have recurred to my mind....”
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller: “"Macbeth" seems to have impressed me most. One reading was sufficient to stamp every detail of the story upon my memory forever.”
Love and Freindship by Jane Austen: “The Manager always played Banquo himself, his Wife my Lady Macbeth ... I did the Three Witches.”
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt: “My English class had read Macbeth in the fall”
The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes: “If it all began elsewhere, and in the minds of others, then perhaps he could blame Shakespeare, for having written Macbeth.”
Why Read the Classics by Italo Calvino: “Ovid essay: magic-philtres scene 'will resurface almost identically in Macbeth'”
Wylder's Hand by Sheridan Le Fanu: “I looked at her as she stood gravely gazing from the window. Is it Lady Macbeth?”
Aurora Floyd by Mary Elizabeth Braddon: “"My foolish Talbot," she said, "do you remember what Macbeth said to _his_ doctor? There are diseases that cannot be ministered to.”
Phineas Redux by Anthony Trollope: “Do you remember the arrangements for the murder in _Macbeth_?”
Cosmos by Alexander von Humboldt: “Same passage listing Shakespeare's lost-analogy plays: Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet.”
The Castle of Crossed Destinies by Italo Calvino: “His chariot advances at the head of the English army, and finally Macbeth is forced to say: I 'gin to be aweary of The Sun, and wish the syntax o' The World were now undone.”
The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth: “1050, Shakespeare's Macbeth, where Duncan was murdered”
The Humbling by Philip Roth: “he was asked to play Prospero and Macbeth at the Kennedy Center...His Macbeth was ludicrous”
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin: “A character says he's always wanted to play Macbeth; discussion of casting Banquo/Richard Burbage in a stage production”
Spring by Ali Smith: “'veel lawaai, dat niets betekent. Zinnetje van school. William Shakespeare' then the plot of trees marching on a usurper king”
The Last Supper by Rachel Cusk: “'I read them Hamlet's soliloquies and Antony's love-speeches and Macbeth's unsettling remarks on the death of his wife.'”
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay, LL. D: “Here's a knocking indeed!... Knock! knock! knock!... Who's there, i' the name o' Beelzebub?... Who's there, i' the devil's name? Knock! knock! knock!--Never at quiet?--Macbeth.”
The Monk by Matthew Lewis: “Avaunt! and quit my sight! Let the Earth hide thee! Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold! Thou hast no speculation in those eyes Which Thou dost glare with! Hence, horrible shadow! Unreal mockery hence! Macbeth.”
The Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith: “Hulloh! Have you seen a ghost? You look scared to death, like Irving in Macbeth.”
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving: “The contents of his book seemed to be as heterogeneous as those of the witches' cauldron in Macbeth.”
Camilla by Frances Burney: “And Amelia was fain to content herself with the habit of the first witch in Macbeth.”
The Monastery by Walter Scott: “Raze out the written troubles of the brain, Cleanse the foul bosom of the perilous stuff That weighs upon the heart. MACBETH.”