Shakespeare: The World as Stage

Precious little is known about the life of William Shakespeare, which makes Bill Bryson the ideal person to write Shakespeare's biography. This he did in 2007 with “Shakespeare: The World as Stage,” part of the Eminent Lives series of brief biographies of notable individuals.

Bryson has had a successful career writing brilliantly not just about his various subjects but about an array of more-or-less related subjects, anything that takes his fancy, in other words. Thus when he writes a chapter called "The Lost Years: 1585-1592," a period in which nothing at all is known about Shakespeare's life, Bryson can stretch it to 20 pages, and it is as interesting as any other chapter in this book.

Because so little is known about the great show more writer, the entire book is more about his times than his life. What was London theater like during that period of history? What were other poets and playwrights doing? What was Queen Elizabeth up to? Even, how much beer did people drink at that time? Bryson lets us know.

This being Bryson, the short book is full of wonderful trivia. There were so many beheadings in London at that time that there was actually an official position called Keeper of the Heads to keep track of where all those heads were mounted for public viewing. Piccadilly got its name from the piccadills, or exotic ruffs common on clothing at that period in history. A theater box office is so called because playgoers then actually put their coins in a box, which was later taken to an office where the money was counted. Eton students were sometimes beaten if they didn't use tobacco, for tobacco was then thought to fight off the plague.

As for Shakespeare, he does manage to make it into his own biography, even if there is more speculation than actual fact. Most of what we do know is based on a few public records and the literature he left behind. And the fact that we still have his plays is something of a miracle, for very few of the plays performed during that period, when the theater was immensely popular, survive. Bryson makes quick work out of claims that someone other than Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare.

Shakespeare wasn't even the most popular or most highly regarded playwright of his day. His stature grew over the centuries after his death. He is now so prominent that countless volumes have been written about him, and like this one, they all consist of more speculation than fact. show less

There are 120 notes and highlights in my ebook version of this work, and quite a number of them are words I especially like or wasn’t sure about. Very apt indeed that a book written about the creator of several hundred English words is written using such a wide range of vocabulary.

We learn that we know almost nothing about the person (in case you are a fan of conspiracy theories, hold them tightly to your chest, proceed to the last chapter of this book, and be schooled, along with Looney, Silliman and Battey. You’re welcome.) but we have this amazing body of work, a good portion of it preserved in the First Folio. Imagine if they didn’t put together that collection. No, don’t, the world would be a very different place, with many show more academics left without a proper addiction (©Shakespeare).

To give you an idea about the extent to which he gave us everyday words, think about how we would describe a simple scene like this without Shakespeare’s words: I felt lonely©, lying in my bedroom© motionless©, only a moonbeam© lighting the downstairs© room… Moreover, what would we do without phrases like ‘vanish into thin air’ or ‘flesh and blood’, just to name a couple? Or without the Shakespeare insult generators, thou vain beef-witted mammet? See?

As always, I enjoyed Bryson’s wit and style immensely. Every piece of information he provided appeared to be exceptionally exciting (for instance, the origin of the phrase ‘box office’), and his level-headed appreciation of the subject of others’ obsession made it pure joy to read this book. show less

An entertaining and easy-to-read biography with the stated aim of providing what we can "know and reasonably assume about the most venerated figure of the English language" (pg. 3). This, as Bryson freely admits on page 21, is why the book is so short, because bona fide facts about Shakespeare's life are rather thin on the ground. Bryson delves into the research and historiography that surrounds the Bard, showing us that whilst there is much that we do not know (such as the all-important 'lost years' between leaving Stratford-upon-Avon and establishing himself as a renowned playwright in London) we should be grateful for what we have. Compared to other figures of the time, we know quite a bit and, when all is said and done, what we have show more are the man's plays and sonnets – as rich a gift as has been provided to humankind by any one individual.

There are flaws in Bryson's approach, not least that he omits entirely any literary criticism. This may seem like a mercy to those who were made to forensically analyse Shakespeare's plays in high school English classes whilst the sun shone outside, but surely an understanding of why Shakespeare's works are so highly-regarded would be key to any understanding of the man himself and his position in history? Such a keystone is absent in Bryson's biography, with the writer limiting himself to throwaway journalistic mentions of the Bard's 'genius' and dubbing certain plays 'masterpieces'.

However, despite this almost-fatal weakness, Bryson does make the most of what he has got. He brings a ready wit and a infectious joy for the subject to his book, and mines the mysteries and unconventionalities of Shakespeare's biographical record for all they are worth. Whilst there is nothing particularly outstanding about Shakespeare: The World as a Stage, there is plenty that comes close. The denunciation of those conspiracy theorists who claim Shakespeare's plays were written by someone else is deliciously cutting, and Bryson, who made his name as a travel writer, is excellent at painting a picture of Elizabethan London – a far different and yet eerily similar beast to what it is today. Bryson does well to capture the peculiarities and the otherness of the era, whilst at the same time humanising and demythologising the elusive playwright himself. Above all, whilst it is far from comprehensive, the book serves as a fine introduction to the subject for the casual reader. show less

This is not much of a biography of [b:William Shakespeare|18135|Romeo and Juliet|William Shakespeare|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XTDJ3P4XL._SL75_.jpg|3349450]. Bryson goes to great pains to establish that very little is known about Shakespeare, certainly not enough to fill even the modest 195 pages of this book, and then proceeds to report and dismiss the many conjectures that have been made about Shakespeare’s life over the years. He also describes the environment, economy and political scene which existed at the time Shakespeare lived and draws all manner of lines between wider events and the Bard’s writings which may, or just as easily may not, be an accurate reflection of reality but, either way, are thoroughly show more entertaining and provide understantable historical context which is a rare thing for a biography.

Even with the paucity of facts available there is, of course, a dissection of Shakespeare’s work and his legacy. For although Bryson demonstrates that the writings we know today survived virtually by accident he also shows how truly fortunate we are that they did. In my favourite chapter, The Plays, Bryson writes “...what really characterises his work –every bit of it, in poems and plays and even dedications, throughout every portion of his career – is a positive and palpable appreciation of the transfixing power of language”. Indeed. Bryson goes on to talk about the many words (2035 to be exact) that Shakespeare is responsible for introducing to English and the beautiful and descriptive phrases that are so prevalent some 400 years after they were written that many are clichés today.

Bryson is clearly a lover of Shakespeare’s writings and while he does occasionally ascribe more genius to the man than a more objective biographer might do, he also discusses the less worthy aspects of Shakespeare’s life (his tight-fistedness for example) to offer balance. And in the end it is fitting that a modern day language artist should write about the English world’s most famous one. The book has all the characteristics that Bryson fans will be familiar with: it is eloquently written, displays those wryly amused observation skills and provides a satisfying number of odd facts to repeat at dinner parties (did you know Shakespeare is responsible for the words ‘lonely’ and ‘unlock’ for example?). In short, it’s an utterly compelling read even if you’re not a particular fan of Shakespeare. show less

Considering the hundreds of thousands of words that have been written about Shakespeare, relatively little is known about the man himself. In the absence of much documentation about his life, we have the plays and poetry he wrote. In this addition to the Eminent Lives series, bestselling author Bryson (The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid) does what he does best: marshaling the usual little facts that others might overlook--for example, that in Shakespeare's day perhaps 40% of women were pregnant when they got married--to paint a portrait of the world in which the Bard lived and prospered. Bryson's curiosity serves him well, as he delves into subjects as diverse as the reliability of the extant images of Shakespeare, a brief show more history of the theatre in England and the continuing debates about whether William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon really wrote Shakespeare's works. Bryson is a pleasant and funny guide to a subject at once overexposed and elusive--as Bryson puts it, he is a kind of literary equivalent of an electron--forever there and not there. show less

Okay, really it should be 3 stars, but it's engaging enough to win the 4th on pure charm.

What I loved most was how frequently Bryson reminds the reader that there is no evidence for certain conjectures -- but when there IS evidence, he presents it clearly. He gives balanced pros and cons to theories that could go either way, and he addresses the history of faulty and fraudulent Shakespearean scholarship. As for the authorship debate, he refutes the Baconian and Oxfordian arguments with a hilarious, "We have no proof Shakespeare owned any pants or shoes, either."

Also, he states outright that Shakespeare can be read as a gay poet and dramatist. No dithering. He also discusses the sonnets and the arguments concerning their assumed show more recipients at length, and reminds readers that James I used to make out with handsome young men in the midst of performing court business.

There were also interesting interviews with archivists that put the state and difficultly of the scholarship itself into context. My inner librarian was very happy about that.

The parts of the book concerning the history of the competing theatres didn't work for me at all, however. It was brief, confusing, and seemed possibly to conflate entirely different buildings, although I actually didn't stop to track down the discrepancies. The Ackroyd book was much clearer on what happened with which property under whose ownership (or tenancy) when, and Ackroyd's various histories of London and Britain lead me to trust his research in this and other questions of setting and daily life (where evidence exists involving other people for the same place and time, and so inserting Shakespeare into it is rational).

Awesome palate cleanser. show less

My version was a short audiobook that I found to be very enjoyable and informative. It's a good concise biography, which is what it sets out to be. As well, Bryson adds segments describing life in Elizabethan England in a common sense way, without rising to melodrama about how disagreeable Shakespeare's England was.

We've all heard the alternate author theories, but Bryson dismisses these firmly and is able to back up his argument well. This was done in part by describing some of the "eccentrics" who made the claim, but he also provided credible reasoning that Shakespeare was indeed the author.

The audiobook ended with a good interview with Bryson by his editor. I enjoyed this so much that I ordered a print copy because there are several show more lines, words, names etc. that I want to remember for reference. The worst of audiobooks is that you can't stick post-it notes in them, but the best of this one was that it was an excellent narration by Bill Bryson. show less