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by: Bill Bryson
List Price: $19.95Amazon.com's Price: $13.57 You Save: $6.38 (32%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 822.33
EAN: 9780060740221
ISBN: 0060740221
Label: Eminent Lives
Manufacturer: Eminent Lives
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 208
Publication Date: November 01, 2007
Publisher: Eminent Lives
Release Date: October 23, 2007
Sales Rank: 19393
Studio: Eminent Lives
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
William Shakespeare, the most celebrated poet in the English language, left behind nearly a million words of text, but his biography has long been a thicket of wild supposition arranged around scant facts. With a steady hand and his trademark wit, Bill Bryson sorts through this colorful muddle to reveal the man himself.
Bryson documents the efforts of earlier scholars, from today's most respected academics to eccentrics like Delia Bacon, an American who developed a firm but unsubstantiated conviction that her namesake, Francis Bacon, was the true author of Shakespeare's plays. Emulating the style of his famous travelogues, Bryson records episodes in his research, including a visit to a bunkerlike room in Washington, D.C., where the world's largest collection of First Folios is housed.
Bryson celebrates Shakespeare as a writer of unimaginable talent and enormous inventiveness, a coiner of phrases ('vanish into thin air,' 'foregone conclusion,' 'one fell swoop') that even today have common currency. His Shakespeare is like no one else's—the beneficiary of Bryson's genial nature, his engaging skepticism, and a gift for storytelling unrivaled in our time.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Crafted, concise, and fun to read
Bill Bryson's concise biography of Shakespeare is brilliantly written, humorously insightful, and entirely delightful. The prose is a well-crafted and playful presentation of the dozen odd facts known about Shakespeare and many of the suppositions, inferences, and wild speculations about the man and his work. This Shakespeare primer can be easily understood by any high-school level reader and no prior knowledge about Shakespeare is required--Bryson even helpfully informs the reader that "William ... Read More
Rating:  - Something for everyone
I really enjoyed this quick read. I knew virtually nothing about Shakespeare; never having read much of his work, nor any explanation of his existence. I learned a good bit, stayed entertained and walked away with a much better appreciation of Shakespeare's impact on the world.
I still can't watch Laurence Olivier's Hamlet however.....
Rating: - As much as most people will ever want to know
When I visited Ashland, Oregon's Shakespeare Festival the buyer in their large, authoritative bookstore suggested this as a good basic biography of William Shakespeare. I've concluded it was a good recommendation for several reasons.
It is a relatively brief 224 pages because Bryson makes the case that extremely few documented facts are known about Shakespeare's life. It seems that essentially nothing is known about Shakespeare's relationships with his immediate family members or known ... Read More
Rating: - If there be nothing new *
It's a hard thing to produce a groundbreaking book about Shakespeare, and Bill Bryson makes no claim to it. This small book is part of Harper Collins' Eminent Lives series; their website describes Eminent Lives as "brief biographies by distinguished authors on canonical figures." That said, SHAKESPEARE: THE WORLD AS STAGE is an entertaining and informative little package.
Bryson catalogues the few facts known about Shakespeare's personal life and whereabouts, and some of the arcana ... Read More
Rating: - A summary of his life and a defense of his authorship via Bryson
Bryson is the perfect choice for this addition to the "Eminent Lives" series, as he takes what little is known about Shakespeare's life and distills it into an easily digestible biography. Conceding that little is known about Shakespeare, Bryson succeeds in capturing the writer and bringing his life into the best focus possible. Filling in the few details he can, Bryson proceeds to create an idea of Shakespeare that forms as solid a portrait as we are ever likely to get. While that alone is praiseworthy, ... Read More
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