Bill Bryson begins by acknowledging how very, very little we know about William Shakespeare. From these paltry facts, Bryson builds an entire, and entirely entertaining, biography. That said, given the few concrete pieces of information we have, I'm not sure I learned much new about Shakespeare. (Caveat: In addition to a mostly-forgotten Shakespeare class, I have visited all places Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon, where I learned not only about the man himself, but the origins of such phrases as "sleep tight" and "lunatic.")
I did, however, learn a great deal about Elizabethan England. This is Bryson at his finest. The subject is light years from hiking the Appalachian Trail or the great American summertime, but the research, the style, and the serious irreverence are Bryson's hallmark. And the plagues. Oh, the plagues. It is easy to forget how absolutely incessant they were.
As much as I enjoyed Bryson's work on Shakespeare, and more broadly on Shakespeare's times, I was most impressed by the way Bryson dispatched with the doubters. Systematically, he examined the claims of those who posit "Shakespeare" was other than Shakespeare. Although I'm positive a deep body of work exists on this aspect of Shakespeare alone, this is the first I've really delved into it and, let me say, Bryson is extremely persuasive.
Shakespeare is one of the slimmest volumes I've read this year, but it packs an outsize punch. This is a great little book for anyone who loves biography, or English literature, or history, or Bill Bryson. Happy reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment