Shakespeare: The World as a Stage

by Bill Bryson

In this much anticipated addition to the Eminent Lives series, Bill Bryson’s biography of William Shakespeare unravels the superstitions, academic discoveries and myths surrounding the life of our greatest poet and playwright.

Shakespeare’s life, despite the scrutiny of generations of biographers and scholars, is still a thicket of myths and traditions, some preposterous, some conflicting, arranged around the few scant facts known about the Bard – from his birth in Stratford to the bequest of his second best bed to his wife when he died.

Following his international bestsellers ‘A Short History of Nearly Everything’ and ‘The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid’, Bill Bryson has written a short biography of William Shakespeare for the Eminent Lives series – which seeks to pair great subjects with writers known for their strong sensibilities and sharp, lively points of view.

• ISBN10: 0007197896
• ISBN13: 9780007197897
• Publish Date: 3 September 2007
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 8 June 2010
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: HarperPress
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 208
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.co.uk

Reviews

[celinenyx]

I was a nice, fun, quick read, and I feel smarter afterwards. Mission accomplished.

Strengths:
- Mr Bryson makes a good distinction between fiction and fact. As he clearly notes, there are a lot of scholars that think to know how Shakespeare was as a person, even though no one could ever have that knowledge
- Every chapter there is a nice chunk of background information on the time period. For the history dummies out there, this book makes sure you know what it's talking about
- Bryson has a certain way of storytelling that makes Shakespeare an engaging read
- I appreciate his humour immensely

Weaknesses:
- The names. Oh lord, the names. Really, after a while I just couldn't remember all those similar looking British names
- Just like the people's names, I sometimes had problems with the names of Shakespeare's plays. At one point he starts composing lists of which play had been written when by different theories. He completely lost me by then
- I'm not that big on deciphering Elizabethan sentences, so a translating now and than would have been helpful