Shakespeare: The World as Stage

by Bill Bryson

Overview

Bill Bryson’s bestselling biography of William Shakespeare takes the reader on an enthralling tour through Elizabethan England and the eccentricities of Shakespearean scholarship—updated with a new introduction by the author to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death

William Shakespeare, the most celebrated poet in the English language, left behind nearly a million words of text, but his biography has long been a thicket of wild supposition arranged around scant facts. With a steady hand and his trademark wit, Bill Bryson sorts through this colorful muddle to reveal the man himself. His Shakespeare is like no one else's—the beneficiary of Bryson's genial nature, his engaging skepticism, and a gift for storytelling unrivaled in our time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062564627
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	04/26/2016
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	69,293
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Bill Bryson's bestselling books include One Summer, A Short History of Nearly Everything, At Home, A Walk in the Woods, Neither Here nor There, Made in America, and The Mother Tongue. He lives in England with his wife.

Hometown:

Hanover, New Hampshire

Date of Birth:

1951

Place of Birth:

Des Moines, Iowa

Education:

B.A., Drake University, 1977

Editorial Reviews

Despite the numerous works about Shakespeare, very little can actually be proven about his life, his works, or even his appearance. Bryson views Shakespeare's life through his own unique lens, pointing out what can't be proven (what he looked like, for instance) and speculating about the historical period in which he lived. If it seems strange that so little is known about Shakespeare, it becomes even more frustrating to learn that so little is actually proven about his times. His tombstone and memorial raise more questions and settle nothing about his life. The final section of Bryson's book explores the ongoing debate about whether or not William Shakespeare from Stratford-upon-Avon actually wrote the works attributed to him. Bryson masterfully shows why none of the contenders to his fame could actually have mastered the phrasing, style, wit, and meaning of the million words of text he left behind-except this man known as Shakespeare. Part of the "Eminent Lives" series, this entertaining gem is highly recommended for all audio collections.-Gloria Maxwell, Metropolitan Community Coll. Lib., Kansas City, MO

Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

A telling glance at one of history's most famously unknowable figures. As sometimes happens with expatriates, journalist Bryson (The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir, 2006, etc.) often turned his attention to his native America during his 20-year residence in England (Made in America, 1995, etc.). Apparently he's now been back home long enough to look the other way in this 12th volume in James Atlas's well-received Eminent Lives series. And who better fits the bill for this assortment of brief biographies than Shakespeare, the literary behemoth who practically defines the Western canon yet boasts a CV that could hardly be slimmer. As the typically wry Bryson observes, "It is because we have so much of Shakespeare's work that we can appreciate how little we know of him as a person. . . . faced with a wealth of text but a poverty of context, scholars have focused obsessively on what they can know." Bryson is just as happy to point out what we can't. To him, Shakespeare is the "literary equivalent of an electron-forever there and not there." Indeed, he makes so much of the fact that so much has been made from the singularly few known facts of the Bard's life that one might say this thin volume's raison d'etre is to identify the many paradoxes surrounding all things Shakespeare, which Bryson candidly illuminates in several deft turns of phrase. That is as good a tack as any to take in this sort of Cliffs Notes-style overview of the rich afterlife and times of Shakespeare, recognized as great, Bryson claims, for his "positive and palpable appreciation of the transfixing power of language"-a point on which even those who don't believe Shakespeare was Shakespeare would agree, anda trait he happens to share with his biographer. Shakespeare redux for the common reader.

Kirkus Reviews

Little is known about Shakespeare’s life, and in this brief biography Bryson makes no attempt to expand on the known details, as other authors have. Starting by presenting the paucity of facts, he goes on to sketch the life of the world’s greatest playwright, from Stratford to London and back again. He also discusses the theories suggesting that Shakespeare’s works were written by someone else, dismissing them as ludicrous. While Bryson’s prose sparkles with Bard-worthy wit, his reading is lackluster, and this reviewer wonders why he doesn’t entrust his audiobooks to more experienced narrators. This is an interesting, though brief, book about the Bard, and it deserves better. K.M. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

FEB/MAR 08 - AudioFile