Bill Bryson's concise biography of Shakespeare is brilliantly written, humorously insightful, and entirely delightful. The prose is a well-crafted and playful presentation of the dozen odd facts known about Shakespeare and many of the suppositions, inferences, and wild speculations about the man and his work. This Shakespeare primer can be easily understood by any high-school level reader and no prior knowledge about Shakespeare is required--Bryson even helpfully informs the reader that "William Shakespeare of Stratford was unquestionably" (p. 196) the author of Shakespeare's plays and poetry, a fact that is apparently not self-evident.
Bryson has written several books including the prize-winning A Short History of Nearly Everything. The book under review is provided as a volume in the "Eminent Lives" series of concise biographies by varying authors and as such conforms to an imposed restriction on length. With a candid honesty that permeates his offering, Bryson notes that the world didn't really need another Shakespeare biography but that the "Eminent Lives" series did. Bryson is straightforward in admitting that no groundbreaking research is presented, but rather the biography gathers the known facts, the supposed facts, and much pithy innuendo into a single engaging and accessible overview. Bryson's strength, then, lies not so much in his Shakespearean expertise but rather in his obvious ability to turn a phrase. Dedicated to our Poet Otherwordly I hope your sense of humour will be satisfied! - stovokor
This collection of 12 essays uses the works of Shakespeare to show how experts in their field formulate critical positions. A helpful guidebook for anyone trying to think of a new approach to Shakespeare. Twelve experts take new critical positions in their field of study using the writings and analysis of Shakespeare, to show how writers (students and academics) find topics and develop their ideas.
Poets and Playwrights is a collection of nine essays by the eminent Shakespearean scholar and critic, the late Elmer Edgar Stoll. In this work, which was first published by the University of Minnesota Press in 1930, Professor Stoll presents his maturest consideration of the art of the poets and playwrights of his subtitle -- Shakespeare, Jonson, Spenser, and Milton. The most extensive essay, “Shakespeare and the Moderns,” includes, in Mr. Stoll’s words, “a review of Shakespeare as I conceive him, in order the better to compare him with those who in some respect or other are his peers.”
Added by: otherwordly | Karma: 222.41 | Fiction literature | 12 November 2008
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'I think I shall be among the English Poets after my death,' John Keats soberly prophesied in 1818 as he started writing the blankverse epic Hyperion. Today he endures as the archetypal Romantic genius who explored the limits of the imagination and celebrated the pleasures of the senses but suffered a tragic early death. Edmund Wilson counted him as 'one of the half dozen greatest English writers,' and T. S. Eliot has paid tribute to the Shakespearean quality of Keats's greatness. Indeed, his work has survived better than that of any of his contemporaries the devaluation of Romantic poetry that began early in this century. 'No one else in English poetry, save Shakespeare, has in expression quite the fascinating felicity of Keats, his perception of loveliness,' said Matthew Arnold. 'In the faculty of naturalistic interpretation, in what we call natural magic, he ranks with Shakespeare.'
DEDICATED to Stovokor, the best fighting were-librarian ever!
Added by: dovesnake | Karma: 1384.51 | Fiction literature | 8 October 2008
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Product Description: Shakespeare's Bawdymust rank as one of the great Eric Partridge's most outstanding accomplishments. In it Partridge, regarded by Anthony Burgess as 'a human lexicographer, like Samuel Johnson', was able to combine his detailed knowledge of Shakespeare with his unrivalled knowledge of Elizabethan slang and innuendo.
I hope your sense of humour will be satisfied!
