Shakespeare
William Shakespeare has been the lodestar of English literature, not only to our finest biographers and critics but to our greatest imaginative writers as well. Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain, and James Joyce have all written of the man—as enigma, ancestor, or phantom. In Shakespeare Anthony Burgess, whose Nothing Like the Sun Harold Bloom called "the only successful novel ever written about Shakespeare," takes up that daunting challenge once again, reimagining the actual world of Shakespeare the...
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Even readers who have a good grasp of Shakespeare will find this biography a surprise and delight. The Atlantic Monthly "Animated by affection and an understanding of the creative imagination that only a creative writer can bring to bear."
Preface to the Third EditionAcknowledgements1Reinterpreting Shakespeare Today1New Critical Perspectives1Re-reading The Merchant of Venice16The Historical Dimension242The Future of History: 1 and 2 Henry IV38The Politics of Interpretation38'From a prince to a prentice'43'of things/ As yet not come to life'593Shakespearean Tragedy: The Subversive Imagination67Questioning the Consensus67Romeo and Juliet : The Murdering Word72'That's he that was Othello'83Macbeth: 'For mine own good'89King Lear: 'men/ Are as the time is'954Shakespearean Comedy and Romance: The Utopian Imagination102'let wonder seem familiar'102Playing for Time: The Comedy of Errors122Measure for Measure: Double Trouble133The Tempest: The Complicities of Art1475'Dreaming on things to come': Shakespeare and the Future of Criticism158Notes177Further Reading205Index226
\ Terry Eagleton"A bright, racy, intelligent text...knowledgeable and humorous."\ —Commonweal\ \ \ \ \ The Atlantic Monthly"Animated by affection and an understanding of the creative imagination that only a creative writer can bring to bear."\ —\ \ \ The Daily Telegraph"Burgess's wonderfully well-stocked mind and essentially wayward spirits are just right for summoning up an apparition of the Bard."\ \ \ \ \ Library JournalBurgess used Shakespeare as a character in his 1964 novel Nothing Like the Sun but turned a more critical eye to the bard's life in this 1970 outing. The book is at once the story of Shakespeare the writer as well as the Elizabethan stage and the times in which he lived and worked. Burgess's obvious ardor for Shakespeare shines through in this short but worthy biography. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.\ \
