William Shakespeare: A Brief Life

by Paul Menzer

Overview

This engaging and fresh biography begins by examining how Shakespeare's life turns into myth so comfortably as to seduce even the most sceptical scholar. The early departure, the late return. Public success, private loss. A twilight of plays about family reunions, a death at home in the biggest house in town, the one he walked by as a schoolboy and eyed with envy, or at least ambition. Shakespeare led an orbital life, everything returned to where it began. He even had the dramatic good sense to die on his birthday.

One of the appealing dynamics of the Shakespeare myth is the contrast of his humble beginnings and his lofty achievements, persuading us that genius might blossom anywhere. William Shakespeare: A Brief Life honours these myths, but also explores some of the mysteries: why Shakespeare left Stratford, who he ran with in London, why he put down his pen and at last came home again. Ultimately, the book explores the compelling contrast between the mere fifty two years Shakespeare lived, with the prolonged after lives of his work and his story, which show no sign of ending.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350156777
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	03/23/2023
Series:	Arden Shakespeare Insights
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	280
File size:	946 KB

About the Author

Paul Menzer is Dean of Visual and Performing Arts at Mary Baldwin University, where he is a professor and the director of the Shakespeare and Performance graduate program. He is the editor of Inside Shakespeare: Essays on the Blackfriars Stage (2006) and author of The Hamlets: Cues, Q's, and Remembered Texts (2008), Anecdotal Shakespeare: a New Performance History (2015), Shakespeare in the Theatre: The American Shakespeare Center (2017), as well as editions of Romeo and Juliet (2017) and Doctor Faustus (2018).
Paul Menzer is the Provost at Mary Baldwin University, USA, where he is a Professor of Shakespeare and Performance. He is the editor of Inside Shakespeare: Essays on the Blackfriars Stage (2006) and author of The Hamlets: Cues, Q's, and Remembered Texts (2008), Anecdotal Shakespeare: a New Performance History (2015), Shakespeare in the Theatre: The American Shakespeare Center (2017), as well as editions of Romeo and Juliet (2017) and Doctor Faustus (2018).

Table of Contents

Series Preface

Preface: The Complete Life of William Shakespeare

Chapter 1. Shakespeare's Dead
Chapter 2. Earth Unto Earth
Chapter 3. Shakespeare at School
Chapter 4. Anne Hathaway, aka
Chapter 5. The Lost Years
Chapter 6. Stratford in the Rear View
Chapter 7. Enter London
Chapter 8. Shakespeare, playwright
Chapter 9. Shakespeare, poet
Chapter 10. Shakespeare's Company
Chapter 11. William Shakespeare, gent.
Chapter 12. Shakespeare at Court
Chapter 13. Shakespeare's Globe?
Chapter 14. Shakespeare's Properties
Chapter 15. The King's Man
Chapter 16. The Plague Years
Chapter 17. Shakespeare's Daughters
Chapter 18. The Returning Point
Chapter 19. Shakespeare's Head
Epilogue: Yellow Leaves

Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

Written with verve, this biography is as breezy as it is illuminating.” —Laurie Maguire, Fellow, Magdalen College, and Professor Emeritus, University of Oxford, UK

“As wry and witty as it is thorough and thoughtful, Menzer's eminently readable study is the most fun you will ever have with a biography of Shakespeare.” —Andrew Hartley, Robinson Distinguished Professor of Shakespeare, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA

From the Publisher