Shakespeare: The Biography
by Peter Ackroyd
List Price:
Our Price: $13.06
You Save: $19.44 (60%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.84 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Peter AckroydEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2005-10-25
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 592
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Book Reviews of Shakespeare: The Biography
Book Review: Excellent
Summary: 5 Stars
Let me first preface this, I am by no means an expert on Shakespeare's life, times and works. In fact I came somewhat late to his plays due to a college professor who, in her infinite wisdom, decided to spend six weeks of a semester convincing us students that she was a Shakespearian "expert" and confirming just the opposite. And at least in my case, made me hesitant, if not resistant, to pursuing the Bard's works on stage. That being said I bit the bullet, grew up and have seen my fair share of Shakespeare plays performed, including Braodway, the Folger, etc. My point here is that the reader need not have a wealth of previous Shakespeare knowledge to both appreciate and enjoy this book.
To put things in perspective Shakespeare was born 300 years before the Civil War and died 300 years before World War I. Attempting to piece together his life in any detail is thus very difficult. Besides his works, which were either updated and revised continually by the playwright during his lifetime and/or collected by his peers after his death, there's a minimal Shakespeare "paper trail", i.e. questionable contemporary descriptions, church records, playbills, deeds and other documented business transactions, or lawsuits.
Shakespeare and his peers were inventing a medium - plagiarizing regularly and adding their own twist, which was not considered a bad thing at the time - and were not concerned about their historical legacy. Their goal was to entertain and make money. Shakespeare accomplished both and that his works still resonate 400 years after he wrote them is testimony to this.
The author fills in these very large biographical gaps by documenting and chronicling the times Shakespeare lived in, adding what pertinent facts history has left us, as well as reasonable conjecture. This may sound like sparse reading - it's not. By not meandering too far from his subject Ackroyd has written a very engaging book. At times the language can get a bit overwrought - Shakespeare's "white hot quill" and "cauldron of creation" - but this can be pardoned as the author is obviously more than a fan.
Conversely Ackroyd does a very good job of not over quoting contemporary sources or Shakespeare's words, which with the spelling, vernacular and syntax of the times potentially could have bogged down the reader. In a nutshell the author explains these intricacies and nuances without being condescending - unlike my college professor. The author's exuberance proved a good thing for a Shakespeare novice like me.
This is a very good book on both Shakespeare's life and times; it is not a detailed analysis of his work, which is exactly what I hoped for when I picked up this book.
Authors Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Authors Books
Bloomsbury Recalledby Quentin Bell
Columbia University Press; Published: 1997-01-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.40
Price in other shops:
William Tyndale: A Biographyby David Daniell
Yale University Press; Published: 1994-11-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $62.92
Neither Saints Nor Sinners: Writing the Lives of Women in Spanish Americaby Kathleen Ann Myers
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2003-08-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.00
Price in other shops:
Storm of Steel (Penguin Classics)by Ernst Jünger
Penguin Classics; Published: 2004-05-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.00
Price in other shops:
Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Lifeby C.S. Lewis
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Published: 1995-11-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.22
Price in other shops:
Roughing It (The Penguin American Library)by Mark Twain
Penguin Classics; Published: 1981-12-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.65
Price in other shops:
Life Is So Good: One Man's Extraordinary Journey through the 20th Century and How he Learned to Read at Age 98by George Dawson, Richard Glaubman
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2001-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.49
Price in other shops:
Shakespeare: The World as Stage (Eminent Lives)by Bill Bryson
Harper Perennial; Published: 2008-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops:
The Professor and the Madman CDby Simon Winchester
HarperAudio; Published: 2005-10-04; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $8.46
Price in other shops:
Alexander Hamilton: A Lifeby Willard Sterne Randall
Harper; Published: 2003-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.80
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Becoming JaneRelease date: 2011-04-05; DVD
Best price: $2.93
Price in other shops:
The Confessions (Penguin Classics)by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Penguin Classics; Published: 1953-08-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.93
Price in other shops:
London: The Biographyby Peter Ackroyd
Nan A. Talese; Published: 2001-10-16; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $73.99
Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchensby Christopher Hitchens
Twelve; Published: 2011-09-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.97
Price in other shops:
Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeareby Stephen Greenblatt
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2004-09-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.49
Price in other shops:
Soul of the Age: A Biography of the Mind of William Shakespeareby Jonathan Bate
Random House; Published: 2009-04-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.64
Price in other shops:
Shakespeare (The Illustrated and Updated Edition)by Bill Bryson
Harper; Published: 2009-11-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.81
Price in other shops:
Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeareby Stephen Greenblatt
W. W. Norton; Published: 2005-09-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.80
Price in other shops: