This short biography of William Shakespeare by world famous writer Bill Bryson brims with the author's inimitable wit and intelligence. Shakespeare's life, despite the scrutiny of generations of biographers and scholars, is still a thicket of myths and traditions, some preposterous, some conflicting, arranged around the few scant facts known about the Bard -- from his birth in Stratford to the bequest of his second best bed to his wife when he died. Following his international bestsellers 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' and 'The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid', Bill Bryson has written a short biography of William Shakespeare for the Eminent Lives series -- which seeks to pair great subjects with writers known for their strong sensibilities and sharp, lively points of view. First published 2007.
Review from McLeods Booksellers
The aim of Bryson’s Shakespeare: The World as Stage is to establish what we know and what we do not know in terms of William Shakespeare’s life. Bryson analyzes various legal documents and works of the time in order to establish a frame of Shakespeare.
ReplyDeleteThe thesis of Bryson’s novel is that through the scrutiny of the remaining historical records, it is clear that William Shakespeare of Stratford is the author of all the plays credited to him. He vehemently opposes all other school of thought, but is also able to back up his beliefs with fact. He acknowledges the other theories but is able to disprove them. For example, some of the supposed authors were dead long before various Shakespeare plays were written, making it impossible that they were the author. Bryson’s bias is clearly in favour of William Shakespeare, as the entire book is aimed at proving he deserves his fame and recognition.
As previously stated, Bryson put forth a strong argument explaining why William Shakespeare is the real author of the plays he is known for today. He also proves and disproves various claims about Shakespeare. Bryson discusses Shakespeare’s religion, sexual orientation, level of income, family life, and more. Through a deep analysis of not only the religious turmoil of the time but also Shakespeare’s father’s religious documents, Bryson concludes that it is likely that Shakespeare was Catholic. The question of sexual orientation is one that has collected much interest, so Bryson took a closer look at the sonnets which caused the topic to arise. He was able to conclude that while these sonnets seem homosexual out of context, it is likely that this was not the case. This is because sonnets of this sort were looking for money from the nobility to whom they were addressed, and as such tended to be written similarly to the Shakespearean sonnets. It is in this fashion that Bryson conducted all his analyses on different parts of Shakespeare’s life. The only weakness detected during the read was Bryson infers a lot and assumes the reader has a bit of background knowledge about the life of Shakespeare, but this is a miniscule criticism of the stunning literary work he created.
This book is not necessarily a narrative about William Shakespeare, but more of an analysis of the facts which are used to develop an idea of what is true about the man behind the plays, setting it apart from other books on Shakespeare. In conclusion, Bryson is an extremely entertaining writer and Shakespeare - The World as Stage is an outstanding read for anyone who enjoys Shakespearean theatre, or just good writing in general.