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Shakespeare: The World as a Stage (Eminent Lives)

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Author: Bill Bryson
Publisher: HarperPerennial
Category: Book

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Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

40 reviews
Sales Rank: 75

Media: Paperback
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.8

ISBN: 000719790X
EAN: 9780007197903
ASIN: 000719790X

Publication Date: April 1, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new book dispatched from stock in the UK

Also Available In:

•	Hardcover - Shakespeare: The World as a Stage (Eminent Lives)
•	Audio CD - Shakespeare: The World as a Stage
•	Hardcover - Shakespeare: The World as Stage (Eminent Lives)
•	Paperback - Shakespeare: The World as Stage
•	Paperback - Shakespeare: The World as Stage (Eminent Lives)

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Customer Reviews: Read 35 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

A good text for GCSE History? July 17, 2008
This is a history book about the life and times of William Shakespeare. Packed with fascinating anecdotal evidence and facts in the same style as Bryson's normal travel books this is engaging without being a laugh on every page. It is just the sort of book that would be ideal for a text for GCSE History as it illustrates how historians go about their business and what a job they have in mining information from a paucity of sources. Thoroughly recommended!

5 out of 5 stars

A natural choice for Bryson June 29, 2008
Although best known for his travel writing, Bryson's books on the English language are brilliant, so it's quite appropriate to find him writing about its most famous exponent.
A huge amount has been written about Shakespeare and his life, despite the fact that very little is really known about him. Bryson keeps the focus on what is definitely known, with little forays into some of the best theories about the rest. Where nothing is known at all, the 'lost years', he chooses to explore Elizabethan London and culture instead, putting the man in context.
Informative, wry, and well researched, this debunks plenty of Shakespeare myths in an accessible and enjoyable style, and Bryson turns out to be an excellent guide.

2 out of 5 stars

I know less now having read this book June 15, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful

Bill Bryson is perhaps best known for his humorous travel essays and should have stuck to what he does best. If it were not for the lack of content this book would have been rated lower it was a relief that it was so brief. There is more fact in the Wikipedia page for Shakespeare than there was in all 150+ pages of this book. If you are searching for information on Elizabethan England this is the book for you not really for the Shakespeare aficionado.

5 out of 5 stars

Much more than just 'Bill going on about Bill' June 10, 2008
There's not much to go on in terms of solid evidence for anyone trying to write a biography of Shakespeare, but Bryson's done a good job with what little we do actually know about the man. And he gets stuck into the various 'alternative' (a.k.a crackpot) theories about the Bard to; his comments on the 'Marlowe' theory definitely hit the nail on the head.

4 out of 5 stars

Stalking the Bard May 26, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Iowa-raised and presumably corn-fed Bill Bryson is perhaps best known for his humorous travel essays about such places as England (NOTES FROM A SMALL ISLAND), Australia (IN A SUNBURNED COUNTRY), the Appalachian Trail (A WALK IN THE WOODS), rural America (THE LOST CONTINENT), and, well, just about everywhere you can think of (A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING). His love of England, which I share, is what originally marked him as one of my favorite authors.

As one who obviously enjoys stringing words together and, moreover, has written books on the subject (THE MOTHER TONGUE and BRYSON'S DICTIONARY OF TROUBLESOME WORDS), it's not terribly surprising that Bill has combined his affections for England and its language in a volume about its greatest (play)writer, SHAKESPEARE: THE WORLD AS STAGE. And, of course, they're both named William.

Bryson admits up front that there's very little in the way of hard facts about William Shakespeare. But, in Bill's hands, that plus what can be deduced or inferred expands to a very satisfying and entertaining volume even for the culturally destitute reader who may not be a aficionado of the Bard's stuff. Like myself.

Bill sets the stage, so to speak, with a cursory examination of the English period contemporary with his subject: the monarchy of Elizabeth I, certain London structures (London Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral), the Thames, religious turmoil, public pastimes, the state of the London theater scene, the business of being a playwright, the structure of contemporary plays, and the art of bookbinding. With those considerations functioning as a contextual backdrop, the products of Shakespeare's life that can be directly studied - his parentage, plays, poetry, written vocabulary, will, and other rare public records in which he's mentioned - serve to flesh out the man to the extent possible. There's even a final chapter on the historical and modern claimants to the authorship of Shakespeare's works, which claims some otherwise accomplished people take seriously. (Just as the current Royal Family had Princess Di murdered. You think?)

The author's paramount strength is the congeniality of his dialogue with his readers. He could, no doubt, make the description of fabricating wire hangers amusing, interesting, and instructive. SHAKESPEARE isn't Bill's best work, perhaps because the scope of the subject matter is so narrow, but it does deserve a place on the bookshelves of his fans.