trin 's review for:

Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? by James Shapiro

4.0

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I would never have read this if someone hadn't recommended it as thoroughly anti all those ludicrous, classist, and ultimately antisemitic (as they all inevitably are) conspiracy theories that Shakespeare, a glover's son and moneylender (see?), couldn't have produced one if not the greatest bodies of work in the English language. But it is! Shapiro retains a measured, academic tone that still takes no prisoners with the twisted logic of Bacon cipher adherents -- including people whose work I love and respect, such as Mark Twain* and Henry James -- and the odious Oxfordians (Freud, others). Basically, all of these people would rather believe in elaborate incestuous conspiracies than that a great artist may have also written for money. It's basically QAnon in an intellectual hat. Maybe slightly more benign... but it still represents a troubling willingness to hold to any pet, in-group theory over clear facts.

Anyway, after all that, the final third of this book is a brief account of much of what we do know of Shakespeare's life, and what his contemporaries wrote about him, and honestly it was like taking a cool, refreshing swim after a long, sweaty walk. Great artistic ability is not contingent on noble birth. If you think otherwise...please unpack that. (But maybe skip consulting a Freudian.)



*He also thought Queen Elizabeth was secretly a man and hated Jane Austen, so... Not every thought's a winner, Sam.