Now Let's Have Another One
I have just finishedThe Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606. Truly we are lucky that James Shapiro is around and writing. First there wasA Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599, and now this.
First point: read it. And if ever you were inveigled by some dreadful teacher of literature at university to discount the context behind a piece of work this superb book will un-inveigle you.
Shapiro writes so well, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph...book by book. I'm in a hurry so I will not write this at length but never (or extremely rarely) have such insights been given with so light a touch. I exaggerate, but not much. And he does what few Shakespeare scholars manage to do: he does not pretend he knows more about Shakespeare as an individual than he does, than it is possible to know; but he introduces his hypotheses against the backdrop of what is known about Shakespeare's world, the politics, the changing tensions, what other people were writing and what Shakespeare must have read.
I recommend, I recommend, I recommend!
First point: read it. And if ever you were inveigled by some dreadful teacher of literature at university to discount the context behind a piece of work this superb book will un-inveigle you.
Shapiro writes so well, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph...book by book. I'm in a hurry so I will not write this at length but never (or extremely rarely) have such insights been given with so light a touch. I exaggerate, but not much. And he does what few Shakespeare scholars manage to do: he does not pretend he knows more about Shakespeare as an individual than he does, than it is possible to know; but he introduces his hypotheses against the backdrop of what is known about Shakespeare's world, the politics, the changing tensions, what other people were writing and what Shakespeare must have read.
I recommend, I recommend, I recommend!
No comments have been added yet.
