Shakespeare: The World as Stage

by Bill Bryson

This short biography of William Shakespeare by world famous writer Bill Bryson brims with the author's inimitable wit and intelligence.

Includes an exclusive Q&A session with the author.

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: 0060740221
• ISBN13: 9780060740221
• Publish Date: 23 October 2007 (first published 3 September 2007)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Inc
• Imprint: HarperCollins
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 208
• Language: English

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