William Shakespeare: A Popular Life

by Garry O'Connor

Overview

(Applause Books). Garry O'Connor's biography creates a vivd impression of Shakespeare's family life, his marriage and sexuality, the intimate details of his background, and his relationships with the theatre, his audiences and the towering political figures of his time such as Queen Elizabeth and the Earl of Essex. It captures the darkness and confusion of his religious feelings, and his painful search for identity as well as his continuous commitments to change and development. O'Connor imaginatively and persuasively reconstructs the playwright's life and career.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781557834010
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	02/01/2000
Series:	Applause Books
Edition description:	EXPANDED
Pages:	392
Product dimensions:	6.31(w) x 9.12(h) x 1.08(d)

Table of Contents

	Introduction	1
Part 1	Consummatum est
	Blessed is the womb	5
	Rage and swell	11
	The kingdom of childhood	19
	A father forgotten	25
	Fire in the blood	35
Part 2	Plays and Maidenheads
	A great profession	43
	Factions and fictions	48
	The wonder of our stage	55
	Outer and inner worlds	62
	The ground-plan of imagination	69
	Half a god	73
	The body is his book	81
	Drops of water	87
	Queint mistery of Ovid	91
	The lure of foreign parts	99
Part 3	The True Patron
	A friend's infirmities	109
	Investigation of marriage	118
	La Passionata	123
	Lawful magic	133
	The shape of a grief	140
	The absence of mothers	149
	Green fields	159
	Life measured by the act	167
	The cockle of rebellion	176
	I am that I am	183
Part 4	A Troubled Mind
	Whole men sick	199
	Double blessing	204
	A sense of limit	210
	The gathered self	221
	Deeds of darkness	229
	Violent vanities	247
	The restoration of mothers	255
	Flying the courts of princes	261
	Sick men whole	265
Part 5	Plots Do Pall
	What's in a face?	273
	In one person many people	278
	Dying menstruums	284
	The great invisible	292
	Life measured by the space	297
	Anon anon sir	302
	Postscript: Look here upon this portrait, and on this	305
	Chronology	309
	Tables of Facts and Traditions	310
	Playhouses	318
	Plays in the 1623 Folio	320
	Acknowledgments	322
	Select Bibliography	324
	Notes and References	327
	Index	367

Editorial Reviews

Rather than taking on the Sisyphean task of sifting through the reams of documents generated by zealous scholars, British biographer O'Connor has chosen "to give Shakespeare a life, not only as a historical figure who can be brought to life, but the dimension of one who is still living." This strategy, for him, entails two major departures from typical Bardology (such as Park Honan's bio earlier this year): First, O'Connor freely and assuredly speculates on the contents of Shakespeare's mind ("Fugitive Jesuits in disguise popped in and out of his imagination as vividly as images of woman's delight"; the Bard later finds that "twins are exhausting"). Second, he draws upon the thoughtful opinions of those who have worked closely with the plays in performance and in noncritical writings: Iris Murdoch, Jonathan Miller, Peter Brook and Trevor Nunn, among others. Their smartly chosen quips have a refreshing authority. O'Connor's approach to the plays themselves ranges from irreverently colloquial (Prospero's Epilogue is "the old man signing off") to casually shrewd--a digression on "the textual use of musical sounds and instruments" is as good as any of the academic research he eschews. While his hostility to the vicissitudes of contemporary scholarship is understandable, O'Connor's reliance on an 80-year-old book for a chronology of "facts and traditions" at the end surely weakens the chronology's credibility; many discoveries have since been made. As an idiosyncratic overview of Shakespeare's present-day status among admirers outside the Ivory Tower, the book's a gem, but its speculative aspects remain ungrounded. (Jan.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

While some readers may not yet be ready to entertain the idea of a feminine Shakespeare suffering from womb envy, those who can push through some of these sorts of bold speculations will find valuable nuggets of plausible biographical information. Often psycho-sexual in his approach, O'Connor (Ralph Richardson: An Actor's Life) presents Shakespeare as a full-blooded person as opposed to the nearly sainted playwright of some critics' imaginations. Clear descriptions of the theater environment of that time are given from the viewpoint of actor, audience, and writer. Extensive tables at the end of the work outline "fact and tradition, showing what is proved and what is not proved about Shakespeare's life and writings." While this work may not appeal to some, especially those who hold that the Earl of Oxford authored the plays (dismissed here as "cranks"), this gives a fresh spin to Shakespeare's life and work. Recommended for public and academic libraries.--Karen E. Sadowski, Brookline, MA Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

This is a paperbound edition of a 2000 book. The author, who has directed at the Royal Shakespeare Company and has written a number of biographies writes for a popular audience about Shakespeare's family life, marriage, and sexuality; his background; and his relationships with the theater, audiences, and political figures of his time. The book includes a chronology, tables of facts and traditions, and a list of playhouses and plays. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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