Shakespeare: The World as Stage
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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. Bryson documents the efforts of earlier scholars, from today's most respected academics to eccentrics like Delia Bacon, an American who developed a firm but unsubstantiated conviction that her namesake, Francis Bacon, was the true author of Shakespeare's plays. Emulating the style of his famous travelogues, Bryson records episodes in his research, including a visit to a bunkerlike room in Washington, D.C., where the world's largest collection of First Folios is housed. Bryson celebrates Shakespeare as a writer of unimaginable talent and enormous inventiveness, a coiner of phrases ("vanish into thin air," "foregone conclusion," "one fell swoop") that even today have common currency. 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. Library Journal 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.
