Awards
2006 Samuel Johnson Prize
Synopses & Reviews
1599 was an epochal year for Shakespeare and England.
Shakespeare wrote four of his most famous plays: Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and, most remarkably, Hamlet; Elizabethans sent off an army to crush an Irish rebellion, weathered an Armada threat from Spain, gambled on a fledgling East India Company, and waited to see who would succeed their aging and childless queen.
James Shapiro illuminates both Shakespeare's staggering achievement and what Elizabethans experienced in the course of 1599, bringing together the news and the intrigue of the times with a wonderful evocation of how Shakespeare worked as an actor, businessman, and playwright. The result is an exceptionally immediate and gripping account of an inspiring moment in history.
Review
"Those four plays marked changes in Shakespeare's style, intent, and vision that Shapiro eloquently, convincingly links to England's contemporary great events. This book is a masterpiece, simply a masterpiece." Booklist (Starred Review)
Review
"A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare widens and deepens our understanding of four seminal plays and the mind that gave them to the world." Philadelphia Inquirer
Review
"[I]ntriguing....Sure to be hated by Harold Bloom and others who view any attempt to locate the Bard in history as blasphemy against the religion of Pure Art, but open-minded readers will be stimulated and enriched by Shapiro's contextual approach." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Shapiro does a fine job showing how this historic change gave birth to Hamlet, with its inwardness and psychologizing, and to the row of great tragedies that followed." John Simon, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"As a feat of sheer scholarly research, Shapiro's book is a mind-boggling performance....This is not a book for the casual reader, but those with a genuine interest in Shakespeare and his times will find it endlessly rewarding." BookReporter.com
Review
"Shapiro goes too far into detail, at times turning the book into a military history....Shapiro is at his best when he explores the high-wire act that Shakespeare performed in a society riven by fear and dread." The Christian Science Monitor
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"James Shapiro throws an unusually searching light across Shakespeare's creative genius and makes him come truly alive." The Economist
Review
"Only an extraordinary scholar could illuminate Shakespeare's singular genius by demonstrating how much his work owes to Elizabethan culture and society." Chicago Tribune
Synopsis
What accounts for Shakespeare's transformation from talented poet and playwright to one of the greatest writers who ever lived? In this gripping account, James Shapiro sets out to answer this question, "succeed ing] where others have fallen short." (Boston Globe) 1599 was an epochal year for Shakespeare and England. During that year, Shakespeare wrote four of his most famous plays: Henry the Fifth, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and, most remarkably, Hamlet; Elizabethans sent off an army to crush an Irish rebellion, weathered an Armada threat from Spain, gambled on a fledgling East India Company, and waited to see who would succeed their aging and childless queen.
James Shapiro illuminates both Shakespeare's staggering achievement and what Elizabethans experienced in the course of 1599, bringing together the news and the intrigue of the times with a wonderful evocation of how Shakespeare worked as an actor, businessman, and playwright. The result is an exceptionally immediate and gripping account of an inspiring moment in history.
Synopsis
James Shapiro, a professor at Columbia University, gives students an intimate history of Shakespeare, allowing them to follow him through a single year-1599-that changed not only Shakespeare's fortunes but the course of literature.
How was Shakespeare transformed from being a talented poet and playwright to become one of the greatest writers who ever lived? In this one exhilarating year students follow what he reads and writes, what he sees, and with whom he works as he invests in the new Globe Theatre and creates four of his most famous plays--Henry the Fifth, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and, most remarkably, Hamlet.
--The Economist
Synopsis
Winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize's 25th Anniversary Winner of Winners award
What accounts for Shakespeare's transformation from talented poet and playwright to one of the greatest writers who ever lived? In this gripping account, James Shapiro sets out to answer this question, "succeed ing] where others have fallen short." (Boston Globe)
1599 was an epochal year for Shakespeare and England. During that year, Shakespeare wrote four of his most famous plays: Henry the Fifth, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and, most remarkably, Hamlet; Elizabethans sent off an army to crush an Irish rebellion, weathered an Armada threat from Spain, gambled on a fledgling East India Company, and waited to see who would succeed their aging and childless queen.
James Shapiro illuminates both Shakespeare's staggering achievement and what Elizabethans experienced in the course of 1599, bringing together the news and the intrigue of the times with a wonderful evocation of how Shakespeare worked as an actor, businessman, and playwright. The result is an exceptionally immediate and gripping account of an inspiring moment in history.
Synopsis
One of the most admired lecturers at Columbia University takes a single year of Shakespeare's life and interweaves history, biography, and literary criticism in a way that has never been done before.
About the Author
James Shapiro, a professor at Columbia University in New York, is the author of Rival Playwrights, Shakespeare and the Jews, and Oberammergau.