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shareen17 's review for:
Shakespeare: The World as Stage
by Bill Bryson
I wish this book could be longer. Actually there are very little facts to go on in writing about Shakespeare's life. This is a short book, because Bill Bryson does very little speculating. This book gives the facts, fills in details about the times, and discusses some of the speculation and scholarship about Shakespeare. There is very little about the content of Shakespeare's work. Don't read this book looking for an analysis of his work. It's all really fascinating, and added to that, all told in Bryson's witty & laid-back voice. He's some samples: "The sight of a screeching ape clinging for dear life to a bucking horse while dogs leaped at it from below was considered about as rich an amusement as public life could offer. That an audience that could be moved to tears one day by a performance of Doctor Faustus could return the next to the same space and be just as entertained by the frantic deaths of helpless animals may say as much about the age as any single statement could." Or, "We are much indebted to Platter for a large part of what we know about Elizabethan theatrical performances in London - making it all the more ironic that he spoke almost no English and could not possibly have understood most of what he was seeing." Or describing King James I : "James was not, by all accounts, the most visually appealing of fellows..." He's got that understated humor that I love. He could probably write about anything and be fun to read. The big negative about this book is that it just made me wish more was known about Shakespeare's life. As Bryson says it, "We know that Shakespeare used words to powerful effect, and we may reasonably presume that he had feelings. What we don't know, and can barely even guess at, is where the two intersected."