A bit frustrating, really. My brain is too scientific to find vague references in a monologue given by an unlikable character to be indicative of *anything*, much less who his drinking buddies were.

But I appreciate the effort, the breadth of sources, and the fact that just about every play and a large number of sonnets get referenced--it is a good way of humanizing him, and certainly got me interested in a few of the plays I hadn't read. I think I might have enjoyed it more in bits and pieces--read the Macbeth chapter while I read the play. A potential for re-read, even though the overall book didn't really do it for me. ( )

Much of the life of William Shakespeare is a mystery. He carefully did not keep a diary nor send love letters to his wife. Shakespeare, the prolific writer who, in just over 50 years wrote an almost unbelievable number of remarkable poems and plays, did not leave many personal details of his life beyond public records (which are spotty 400 years later). There was not a market for biographies of famous playwrights in the 1600s, and many details of his life were not written down until he was long gone.

Yet, in Will in the World, Stephen Greenblatt attempts to explain Shakespeare’s life by reading what he did write: his plays. In a truly remarkable way, Greenblatt ties the Bard’s life into the context of Victorian England by visiting the context of his plays.

Despite being an English major, I am not very familiar with most of Shakespeare’s work, let alone his life. I found Greenblatt’s look at Shakespeare’s life through his plays be utterly fascinating. Even if none of the suppositions Greenblatt provides were true, understanding the cultural context of the plays will help me in my future studies of the plays. I loved this “literary” biography, and I’d highly recommend it to those interested in the cultural context of the Bard.

More detailed review on my blog

The author brings together little-known historical facts and elements of Shakespeare's plays and connects them to his life and the prevailing 16th Century environment in which he lived. This book provides the best description of life for the common people in 16th Century England that I've ever been exposed to. The book also makes Shakespeare's plays very accessible to the modern reader and exposes the extraordinary depth of humanity depicted by his plays.

Read in May, 2007 ( )

Neither a history book nor a work of fiction, but the author's fantasy about what Shakespeare's life might have been like. The author lost me at the end of Chapter 4: too much idle fantasy when I had hoped for a window onto Will's world. Bill Bryson's book on Shakespeare is better: all history, plus his self-deprecating humor. ( )

Few -- very few -- historical documents exist that would allow biographers to bring us the life of William Shakespeare. Reading this book by Stephen Greenblatt, I was struck with the thought of how much history we may have already lost by not telling and writing down the stories of our ancestors, famous or otherwise.

And Shakespeare is famous. So much so, that the lack of hard "evidence" hasn't dissuaded scholars from attempting to chronical his life; nor readers to peruse their writings.

Stephen Greenblatt has studied what little evidence there is, and accounts of life in England during Shakespeare's lifetime. He has analyzed Shakespeare's writings deeply. From all of this, he constructs a plausible account of Shakespeare's life. Yes, it is partly -- at times, highly -- speculative. Unavoiable, under the circumstances. But, reading this book has given me a much deeper understanding of the context for Shakespeare's writing and I know I will enjoy watching his plays performed so much more for having done so. ( )

If you are going to read two biographies of William Shakespeare, read Anthony Burgess's for sheer enjoyment; and read Stephen Greenblatt's for its historical vigor and creativity. ( )

This is a fascinating psychohistorical biography of Shakespeare and how he incorporated events in his own life and his experience of the world into his writing. ( )

(#4 in the 2008 book challenge)

This was fun in the way it would be fun to take a very good Honors Literature class in high school (except it would be fun in a different way, now that I am an adult, as opposed to the way it was fun when I actually took Honors Lit in high school and spent a great deal of time passing notes to my friend Kim about how to best coordinate our outfits for the upcoming weekend). Because we don't know very much about Shakespeare's life -- and I do in fact remember learning that in high school and thinking that was remarkably irresponsible of someone -- Mr. Greenblatt takes the approach of setting out the sorts of issues and occurrences that would have been present for any random guy living at the same time as Shakespeare, and then demonstrating how they might likely link up with the text. This is along with the few documented things that did manage to survive. The author does point out several times that through the ages, historians and critics have made all sorts of assumptions in order to fill in the blanks. In light of this, I found it rather endearing that Mr. Greenblatt himself got a little caught up in his extrapolations at times, but it seemed to come from a good place of genuine enthusiasm for the subject. Plus, I also enjoyed his willingness to kick back and enjoy the moment when events were unexpectedly funny.

Grade: A-
Recommended: to Shakespeare geeks, fans of Elizabethan history, and people who enjoyed AP English the first time around.

An informative written journey on what external factors contributed to some of the greatest plays ever written. ( )

The early life of William Shakespeare. ( )

The theatre for which Shakespeare wrote and acted was a cut-throat commercial entertainment industry. Yet his plays were also intensely alert to the social and political realities of their times. Shakespeare had to make concessions to the commercial world, for the theatre company in which he was a shareholder had to draw some 1,500 to 2,000 paying customers a day into the round wooden walls of the playhouse to stay afloat and competition from rival companies was fierce. The key was not so much topicality - with government censorship and with repertory companies recycling the same scripts for years. Instead, Shakespeare had to engage with the deepest desires and fears of his audience. Will in the World is about an amazing success story that has resisted explanation: it aims to be the first fully satisfying account of Shakespeare's character and the blossoming of his talent. There have, of course, been many biographies of Shakespeare. The problem each one faces is the thin amount of material surrounding his life. They lead us through the available traces but leave us no closer to understanding how the playwright's astonishing achievements came about. The real-world sources of Shakespeare's language - of his fantasies, passions, fears, and desires - lie outside the scope of these earlier books. Will in the World will set out to recover the links between Shakespeare and his world and with them to construct a full and vital portrait of the man. Its purpose is to know the magician himself, as well as his magic tricks, and to experience the touch of the real. It is a journey that centres on the perils and pleasures of Shakespeare's unfolding imaginative generosity - his ability to enter into others, to confer upon them his own strength of spirit, to make them live and breathe as independent beings as no other artist who ever lived has done.

Critics have quibbled with some of Greenblatt's speculations about Shakespeare's life, but he delivers readable and detailed account of life in Elizabethan England. Read it before you attend a summer Shakespeare-in-the-Park production and you'll enjoy the experience a great deal more. ( )

Superb and supple biography linking Shakespeare's life with the plays. A remarkable acheivement. Entertaining, readable, sustained momentum, one revelation after another. Outstanding book. ( )

Could have been good, but was filled with unwarranted speculation on all aspects of Shakespeare's life. Stick to the facts, please. ( )

Good biography--fun to read but not entirely "factual" given that so much conjecture is--and must be--involved. ( )

Greenblatt is fascinating, brilliant, eurdite and yet accessible writer. His ability to bring the Elizabethan daily life alive is like watching a magic trick unfold, you dare not look away.

However in the end that obsessive knowledge cripples him. Because Greenblatt is not just a scholar, he is the world's definitive Shakespeare fanboy, and deeply, **deeply** woven into this work is that unquestioning love. Which is fine, and his ability to share that passion is what makes this work compelling, but you are also aware that many questions are left unexplored, many assumptions unexplored, and I personally pined for that missed opportunity. ( )