Faux Autobiography; Family Drama
The Black Prince announces itself as the personal reflections of one Bradley Pearson, who, in narrating the events of a particularly tumultuous period in his life, claims to be revealing truths that have been hidden from the public eye. In this sense, the novel is a kind of autobiography or memoir—but a fictional one, don't forget.
The Black Prince is also a family drama—one modeled loosely on one of the most famous family dramas in all of literature: William Shakespeare's Hamlet. Although Bradley Pearson is technically an outsider to the Baffin family, he's so intimately involved with all three of the Baffins that he's practically one of them. Appearing by turns as an uncle figure, a son, a lover, a prospective husband, and even the family pet, Bradley is wholly mixed up in the Baffins' lives. No wonder so much drama ensues.