Shakespeare

This is an excellent companion book to the Documentary from PBS. I watched the documentary as a requirement for a lit class I was taking and loved it so much I bought the book. There are great details in here that were not included in the television program. If you are interested in learning more about Shakespeare and the world he lived in this is an excellent read!

This wonderfully illustrated book is not for those seeking in-depth literary theories about Shakespeare's work, but if you're interested in Shakespeare's life I think this book is a must. Yes, the book is filled with speculation - none of it outlandish - about the possible events in Shakespeare's life, but Mr. Wood always presents evidence for his theories. Just as important, Mr. Wood, unlike many critics and biographers, tries to connect events in Shakespeare's life to his work, e.g. how his son's death made him a greater writer. I suspect many will condemn Mr. Wood for his speculation, but when it comes to most of Shakespeare's life what else can we do but speculate? Also, Mr. Wood paints a picture of London life during the Elizabethan Era. Finally, this book has an excellent theory about why and for whom the sonnets were written. Reading this book made me feel as if I almost knew Shakespeare.

Most of Michael Wood's books are companions to television documentary series which I have never had the fortune to see. His books, though, are stand alone and fulfilling on their own and I have to wonder how he squeezed so much of their complex detail into the picture and sound media. There are two clues, however, that SHAKESPEARE originated as a documentary: the narrative voice of the text is fluent and bright as one that must be heard to be understood and the text is not littered with footnotes. Instead, a detailed reading list and acknowledgment section appears at the end, and Wood often credits sources directly in the narrative. This format has irritated some of his academic critics but for the general reader, it suits just fine. Wood chooses to follow Shakespeare through the local and global influences that shaped his life, his artistic methods and themes, and the work that poured from them. Though Shakepeare's adult religiosity is not particularly known, he was raised in rural England by Catholics who were watching their world being torn violently away by the Reformation. He was also the product of a public education grounded in the classics and trained in rote. As a child he saw the mystery plays and as an adolescent may have been in a theater company for a while. Put this together with a mind like a sponge and an unparalleled artistic vision, and he was ready for London and the rapidly changing world that brought new cultures and possibilities to mix with the old. Wood offers a strong reading of many of the poems and plays, matching them up with Shakespeare's personal experiences. He goes as far to propose an identity for the Dark Lady of the sonnets and the young gentleman who also figures in them. The picture of Elizabeth's administration with its intrigues, censorship and violence is not pretty, which makes Shakespeare's ability to thrive in the midst of it all that more remarkable. Wood's books always gleam with his apparent interest for his subjects, but SHAKESPEARE shows him at his most passionate. He truly brings the man alive.

Michael Wood presents the information in a calm, rational way, and shows how a real scholar approaches a subject - as opposed to the breathless crackpots who push any number of wacky Shakespeare authorship conspiracies. On the web site for his TV series, Wood notes that there have been more programs on Shakespeare conspiracies than on Shakespeare himself. Sadly true!

Shakespeare by author, filmmaker, and television producer Michael Wood is a biography of the man who is justifiable considered to be the greatest playwright in the literary history of the English language. Wood delves into the archival evidence to reconstitute as accurate as possible a picture of the Elizabethan England in which William Shakespeare lived, and bringing together insights into the live and work of this gifted man, including his family, his sources of inspiration, his personal attitude on social issues, and more. Enhanced throughout with illustrations, Shakespeare is a superbly written, definitively researched, and thoroughly involving, and enthusiastically recommended biographical study.