Back to Shakespeare

From time to time, I read another Shakespeare book. After all, as Bill Bryson says in Shakespeare: The World as Stage -- "The amount of Shakespearean ink, grossly measured, is almost ludicrous. ... Shakespeare Quarterly, the most exhaustive of bibliographers, logs about four thousand serious new works ... every year."

This is good for me, a reader with a yen to read something new about Shakespeare from time to time. Bad for writers like Bryson, who says immediately after giving these stats: "To answer the obvious question, this book was written not so much because the world needs another book on Shakespeare as because this series does. The idea is a simple one: to see how much of Shakespeare we can know, really know, from the record." (p 20-21)

So I read this one, continuing with my 2007 resolution which has served me well for a year and a half. And Bryson's book is a very entertaining read. He takes Shakespeare seriously, but not too seriously, avoiding the excesses of flip that he often indulges himself in. There are all kinds of good things: even an insight into why the cover image may or may not look like the Shakespeare, a playwright who lived 400 years ago. And why it's wise to spend no time bothering with the idea that this man didn't write the plays.

Bryson sticks to his claim that he's only trying to find out what is known without speculation -- not much. He deftly combines the Shakespeare info with info on the critics and speculators, emphasizing both the life and the origins and dates of the plays. As a result, he debunks or even pillories the most speculative and thus arrogant of critics -- no fools are gladly suffered here. He's not reverent (Bill Bryson, reverent?) so he doesn't gush about the bard. But he has plenty of respect. The overall result is a book with lots of really useful details about Shakespeare himself, about made-up or over-the-top claims and legends, and about how so much incorrect or unsubstantiated stuff had its start. He refrains from tackling any actual literary judgments of the works, which keeps the pace up and the book short.

Finally, I thank Evelyn for giving this book to me. It was a good Mother's Day present. I appreciate it as much as last year's good Mother's Day read, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which has been in the news all year. And to follow up, I've already ordered another book by an author that Bryson cites a lot.