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A review by oldenglishrose
Mrs. Shakespeare: The Complete Works by Robert Nye
3.0
The attraction of this book is without doubt the wonderful character and narrative voice that Nye has created for the eponymous Mrs Shakespeare. She is earthy and practical, writing with a straightforward and direct tone which is full of bathos and the perfect contrast to her husband’s elegant, playful tones. I enjoyed the way that she deliberately avoids using metaphor and simile as she considers these dishonest ways of speaking, and her down to earth deconstruction of the sonnet Shakespeare gives to her is a stroke of comic genius.
This book uses one fictional event, the visit of Anne Hathaway to her husband in London in 1594, as a lens through which to examine the possible relationship between Shakespeare and his much neglected wife. Throughout her story are anecdotes and thoughts taken from Shakespeare’s plays and I had fun spotting and identifying these. In particular, this book creates a reason behind Shakespeare’s odd-sounding bequest to his wife of the second best bed. I thought that this section of the novel, focussing on the unusual relations enjoyed my Mr and Mrs Shakespeare in the second best bed, was useful in that it explored the different reactions to and motivations for physical pleasure of the two main characters. However, it did become rather overstated and was a disproportionately long section in what is a short novel. On the whole though, I enjoyed the irreverent tone of the whole book, and found it to be a good read.
This book uses one fictional event, the visit of Anne Hathaway to her husband in London in 1594, as a lens through which to examine the possible relationship between Shakespeare and his much neglected wife. Throughout her story are anecdotes and thoughts taken from Shakespeare’s plays and I had fun spotting and identifying these. In particular, this book creates a reason behind Shakespeare’s odd-sounding bequest to his wife of the second best bed. I thought that this section of the novel, focussing on the unusual relations enjoyed my Mr and Mrs Shakespeare in the second best bed, was useful in that it explored the different reactions to and motivations for physical pleasure of the two main characters. However, it did become rather overstated and was a disproportionately long section in what is a short novel. On the whole though, I enjoyed the irreverent tone of the whole book, and found it to be a good read.