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A review by mlrio
Shakespeare: The World as Stage by Bill Bryson
4.0
This is a great introduction to the mysterious identity of William Shakespeare. Bill Bryson doesn't make the mistake most biographers make--i.e., twisting facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts, as Sherlock Holmes might put it. He tells it like it is, and manages to cover what we know for sure of Shakespeare's life in a pretty economic fashion. Of course, we really don't know much, and Bryson is the first to admit it:
And Bryson's volume is exactly that: slender. At a mere 196 pages, it seems impossible that even such a seasoned biographer as Bryson could do the world's most famous writer justice. But somehow, Bryson manages not only to cover everything we really do know about Shakespeare, but also to explore (and often to debunk) the speculations, suggestions, and wild conspiracy theories that have been previously provided by other scholars--and sometimes crackpots, and sometimes evidently both at once.
Bryson gives us the bare bones not because he isn't up to a greater challenge, but because when it comes to Shakespeare, the bare bones are all we have. He admirably resists the temptation to provide his own half-baked theories and instead offers the few knowable details of Shakespeare's life with the curious combination of wit and sobriety that has made him one of non-fiction's favorite authors.
All in all, this is an excellent 'introductory course' for a curious reader, and would serve as an excellent foundation for someone who's not quite ready for the more in-depth examinations of James Shapiro or Stephen Greenblatt.
To answer the obvious question, this book was written not so much because the world needs another book on Shakespeare as because this series [Eminent Lives] does. The idea is a simple one: to see how much of Shakespeare we can know, really know, from the record. Which is one reason, of course, it's so slender.
And Bryson's volume is exactly that: slender. At a mere 196 pages, it seems impossible that even such a seasoned biographer as Bryson could do the world's most famous writer justice. But somehow, Bryson manages not only to cover everything we really do know about Shakespeare, but also to explore (and often to debunk) the speculations, suggestions, and wild conspiracy theories that have been previously provided by other scholars--and sometimes crackpots, and sometimes evidently both at once.
Bryson gives us the bare bones not because he isn't up to a greater challenge, but because when it comes to Shakespeare, the bare bones are all we have. He admirably resists the temptation to provide his own half-baked theories and instead offers the few knowable details of Shakespeare's life with the curious combination of wit and sobriety that has made him one of non-fiction's favorite authors.
All in all, this is an excellent 'introductory course' for a curious reader, and would serve as an excellent foundation for someone who's not quite ready for the more in-depth examinations of James Shapiro or Stephen Greenblatt.