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A review by sydsnot71
The Age Of Shakespeare by Frank Kermode
4.0
I decided to prepare for a weekend in Stratford-upon-Avon where I am going to see 'Macbeth' with Christopher Eccleston by reading 'The Age of Shakespeare'.
It's a well-written introduction to the context - historical, cultural and social - in which Shakespeare operated, although Shakespearian scholarship might have impacted on some of his conclusions since this was written in 2005.
This is almost the first book I've read about Shakespeare that doesn't complain about the lack of information there is about his life and it doesn't bother to toy with the idea that Shakespeare didn't write his own plays. Indeed, without mentioning it at all Kermode puts together an impressive case for why only Shakespeare could have written them.
Kermode also does a survey of all the plays, which I found interesting, giving background and context to some of the themes and tracing Shakespeare's development as a writer.
There are almost certainly more in-depth books about subjects covered in this book but there aren't many to equal it in terms of compactness of information.
It's a well-written introduction to the context - historical, cultural and social - in which Shakespeare operated, although Shakespearian scholarship might have impacted on some of his conclusions since this was written in 2005.
This is almost the first book I've read about Shakespeare that doesn't complain about the lack of information there is about his life and it doesn't bother to toy with the idea that Shakespeare didn't write his own plays. Indeed, without mentioning it at all Kermode puts together an impressive case for why only Shakespeare could have written them.
Kermode also does a survey of all the plays, which I found interesting, giving background and context to some of the themes and tracing Shakespeare's development as a writer.
There are almost certainly more in-depth books about subjects covered in this book but there aren't many to equal it in terms of compactness of information.