Shakespeare by Michael Wood Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Shakespeare
Book Review: For all time
Summary: 5 Stars
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.