For those for whom the authorship question is of great interest, this book won't satisfy.
Bryson is outright dismissive of any question of authorship, going through some of the more popular alternative authors and explaining why they couldn't possibly have written Shakespeare's plays. I'm firmly Stratfordian in my views, but it's always an interesting academic discussion. Much about Shakespeare's life, or supposed life, is daunting, and so many scholars-and non-scholars-have tried to identify alternative authors for the works we attribute to the Bard. Unfortunately, searching through box upon box of sheepskins filled with nearly-illegible Elizabethan handwriting is a daunting task.
The sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries weren't known for their fastidious record-keeping, but the sheepskin they used for records is durable enough that what records they made have mostly survived, thankfully. Bryson takes us into the National Archive, the Folgers Shakespeare Library, and many other institutions, showing us exactly how we discovered Shakespeare's whereabouts and activities at certain points in his life. When it comes to what we do know about Shakespeare, it's fascinating to learn how we know it. Part of the allure of Shakespeare is as a cautionary tale for literary historians and critics, and a reminder to readers to always read with a critical eye-information is not credible just because an author insists it is so. This may be a result of the narrower subject matter-and as Bryson points out, we know much less about Shakespeare's life than most scholars are content to admit.
I would read it.īryson brings his clear style to Shakespeare's life, although this book is drier than A Short History. So when I found out that Bill Bryson, whose A Short History of Nearly Everything blew me away, had written a book about Shakespeare's life, there was really no question. In high school, I was part of a group of students, led by one fantastic English teacher, called the "Shakespeare Seven." We met at lunch and read King Lear, then the next year we read The Merchant of Venice on our own time outside of school. While I haven't read a lot of serious scholarship about Shakespeare, my fascination with him has always been a little more than casual since first discovering his plays.
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