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Shakespeare: The World as Stage (Eminent Lives)

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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

William Shakespeare, the most celebrated poet in the English language, left behind nearly a million words of text, but his biography has long been a thicket of wild supposition arranged around scant facts. With a steady hand and his trademark wit, Bill Bryson sorts through this colorful muddle to reveal the man himself.

Bryson documents the efforts of earlier scholars, from today's most respected academics to eccentrics like Delia Bacon, an American who developed a firm but unsubstantiated conviction that her namesake, Francis Bacon, was the true author of Shakespeare's plays. Emulating the style of his famous travelogues, Bryson records episodes in his research, including a visit to a bunkerlike room in Washington, D.C., where the world's largest collection of First Folios is housed.

Bryson celebrates Shakespeare as a writer of unimaginable talent and enormous inventiveness, a coiner of phrases (vanish into thin air, foregone conclusion, one fell swoop) that even today have common currency. His Shakespeare is like no one else's--the beneficiary of Bryson's genial nature, his engaging skepticism, and a gift for storytelling unrivaled in our time.

Synopsis:

William Shakespeare, the most celebrated poet in the English language, left behind nearly a million words of text, but his biography has long been a thicket of wild supposition arranged around scant facts. With a steady hand and his trademark wit, Bill Bryson sorts through this colorful muddle to reveal the man himself. His Shakespeare is like no one else's—the beneficiary of Bryson's genial nature, his engaging skepticism, and a gift for storytelling unrivaled in our time.

About the Author

Bill Bryson's bestselling books include A Walk in the Woods, I'm a Stranger Here Myself, In a Sunburned Country, Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words, Bill Bryson's African Diaryand A Short History of Nearly Everything. He lives in Norfolk, England, with his wife and children.

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:

selka, November 3, 2009 (view all comments by selka)
Lovely. With the novel premise of defining the very lean menu of things we “know for sure” about the Bard, it distinguishes itself from the hordes of Shakespeare biographies by avidly shunning speculation and conjecture. Bryson builds a concise, informative picture of Shakespeare's place in history in a very readable, entertaining, engaging way, while exploring how and where the "facts" we think we know about Shakespeare developed along the way, too.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780061673696
Author:
Bryson, Bill
Publisher:
Harper Perennial
Author:
by Bill Bryson
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Historical - British
Subject:
General Biography
Subject:
Biography-Literary
Copyright:
Edition Description:
Trade PB
Series:
Eminent Lives
Publication Date:
20081031
Binding:
TRADE PAPER
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
208
Dimensions:
8.04x5.36x.52 in. .37 lbs.

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Related Subjects

Arts and Entertainment » Art » Sale Books
Arts and Entertainment » Drama » Shakespeare » Criticism
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Biography » Entertainment and Performing Arts
Biography » General
Biography » Historical
Biography » Literary

Shakespeare: The World as Stage (Eminent Lives) Sale Trade Paper
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Product details 208 pages Harper Perennial - English 9780061673696 Reviews:
"Synopsis" by , William Shakespeare, the most celebrated poet in the English language, left behind nearly a million words of text, but his biography has long been a thicket of wild supposition arranged around scant facts. With a steady hand and his trademark wit, Bill Bryson sorts through this colorful muddle to reveal the man himself. His Shakespeare is like no one else's—the beneficiary of Bryson's genial nature, his engaging skepticism, and a gift for storytelling unrivaled in our time.
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