Shakespeare

Critics

• Where there’s a Will . . .

  Shakespeare may be the man of the previous millennium, but he is doing pretty well in the current one, too. Always at the heart of literary academia (inspiring around 4,000 books, monographs and other published studies each year), he has of late reca ... (read full critics)

  spectator published on Fri, 17 Sep 2010

• Where there’s a Will . . .

  Shakespeare may be the man of the previous millennium, but he is doing pretty well in the current one, too. Always at the heart of literary academia (inspiring around 4,000 books, monographs and other published studies each year), he has of late reca ... (read full critics)

  spectator published on Mon, 13 Sep 2010

8 Reviews

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  What we really know about Shakespeare

  Bill Bryson has written this (by comparison) very thin book about William Shakespeare. The book is thin because he has focused on the things that we REALLY know about the bard. Which happens to be: not much. It's nice to know that all these big tomes by other authors about Shakespeare are made up of ... (continue)

  Bill Bryson has written this (by comparison) very thin book about William Shakespeare. The book is thin because he has focused on the things that we REALLY know about the bard. Which happens to be: not much. It's nice to know that all these big tomes by other authors about Shakespeare are made up of 10% fact and 90% conjecture.
  If you want to brush up on your Shakespeare the easy way, read this book!
  Apart from that, it´s also very funny.

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  Linda Wilke said on Aug 27, 2008 | Add your feedback

• 

  This thin book when compared with the flimsy facts that we know about Shakespeare is already great work. I started reading this book knowing very little about Shakespeare and finished reading it knowing barely a little bit more. However, everything about the historical backdrop is certainly very g ... (continue)

  This thin book when compared with the flimsy facts that we know about Shakespeare is already great work. I started reading this book knowing very little about Shakespeare and finished reading it knowing barely a little bit more. However, everything about the historical backdrop is certainly very good read!

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  Wing Wong said on May 11, 2011 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

• 

  The book contains some really interesting points. However, having read this book after Marchette Chute's "Shakespeare of London" , I found that most of the things treated here were developed too coincisely. To those who don't know much about Shakespeare this can be a good introductory book, but if ... (continue)

  The book contains some really interesting points. However, having read this book after Marchette Chute's "Shakespeare of London" , I found that most of the things treated here were developed too coincisely. To those who don't know much about Shakespeare this can be a good introductory book, but if you have read other essays and biographies on Shakespeare, this book will dissatisfy you, I believe.

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  Lilyofthevalleys2000 said on Sep 8, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 

  An entertaining chronicle of the Bard's life - or of the little that we know of it. Funny and interesting.

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  Marco Piva said on Feb 17, 2010 | Add your feedback

• Possibly the best book against the Authorship Conspiracy. Yes, the author of Hamlet really is William Shakespeare, not Roger Bacon.

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  pyridine said on Feb 12, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 

  Shakespeare is as intriguing a character as the ones he portrays in his plays. No wonder an inquisitive and curious writer as Bill Bryson has decided to look into the mysteries of his life and has come up with a brilliant and intelligent summary of the enormous variety of the writings about the Bard ... (continue)

  Shakespeare is as intriguing a character as the ones he portrays in his plays. No wonder an inquisitive and curious writer as Bill Bryson has decided to look into the mysteries of his life and has come up with a brilliant and intelligent summary of the enormous variety of the writings about the Bard.
  It is difficult to add to the praise already mentioned on the back cover. I may just confirm that the best quality of this book is probably its readability, its clear and bright style, full of sympathy and humour - a pity this is one quality that is too often lost in translation - so reading in English is recommended.

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  Anmar08 said on Aug 16, 2009 | Add your feedback

See all 8 comments

Book Details

• Rating:
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• English Books
• Paperback 200 Pages
• ISBN-10: 000719790X
• ISBN-13: 9780007197903
• Publisher: HarperPerennial
• Pub date: Apr 01, 2008
• Also available as: Mass Market Paperback, Hardcover, Audio CD, Others and eBook
• In other languages: other languages Libros en Español, Libri Italiani

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