Shakespeare: The Biography

Author - Peter Ackroyd ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Paperback Book item from Anchor was reviewed on 16-Oct-2008.

Search ISBN:140007598X offer from Abebooks or used books from Alibris. Shakespeare: The Biography Reference Book. Classifications : Authors Arts & Literature Biographies & Memoirs Subjects Books General British Historical Biographies & Memoirs Subjects Books General Biographies & Memoirs Subjects Books Ackroyd, Peter ( A ) Authors . Click the following link to view the cover of Shakespeare: The Biography.

Related topics: Authors. Arts & Literature. Subjects. Books. General. British. Historical. Subjects. Books. General.

1) Paperback Book Shakespeare: The Biography by Anchor. I´m surprised by the number of five-star reviews: I feel I´m being rather generous with four. This "biography" is a collection of very short chapters dealing with aspects of Elizabethan life nominally connected with specific periods or events of Shakespeare´s life--aspects political, economic, cultural, religious, moral, aesthetic, economic, literary, theatrical, architectural, sartorial, legal, familial, pedagogical, erotic, hygienic, pathological, psychological, sociological, and linguistic (among others). Some of this is quite interesting: I found the book generally held my interest. But these lucubrations--they often amount to a kind of noodling--are almost never tied to a real argument, and while they sometimes seem to enlighten, they rarely allow a strong sense of a Shakespearian personality to coalesce.

Still, I´m grateful to Ackroyd for some insights, among them: the collective, open-ended nature of the process of composition as well as of the performance of the plays; the influence of legal education and practice upon Elizabethan theater in general and Shakespeare´s work in particular; the improvisational nature of his writing; they way in which the plays´ unity is often mainly a matter of language and image rather than theme.¤

2) Paperback Book Shakespeare: The Biography by Anchor. Peter Ackroyd is the greatest living biographer. Simple as that. Unfortunately, this is probably his least satisfying biography. This is not to say that the book is not an enjoyable read, for it most assuredly is. But it is not up to Ackroyd´s usually outstanding snuff.
Part of the reason for this is that there is so little evidence of Shakespeare´s life available to the researcher beyond the plays themselves. We just don´t know that much. Mr. Ackroyd also presents the book in numerous very brief chapters, which tends to make the work choppy, and lends itself to occasional repetition.
Still, the book is well worth the effort. Ackroyd´s prose remains a rich, sumptuous meal, highly satisfying, yet easily digested. As the evidence is so thin, Ackroyd frequently speculates about what Shakespeare may have done, or what he may have been thinking at any given time. One gets the impression that Mr. Ackroyd´s speculations are right on target. The book gives tremendous insight into what life was like in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. This is probably its greatest strength.
In short, Shakespeare: The Biography is an excellent book. It´s just not quite as excellent as what I´ve been used to with Peter Ackroyd.¤

3) Paperback Book Shakespeare: The Biography by Anchor. Of course, any biography of Shakespeare is mostly a biography of Renaissance England, since so little is known of his actual life, but Ackroyd pulls together every scrap of fact and weaves it all together in a way that makes the era and the man full of life and energy. He uses a lot of "evidence" from the plays, but that´s okay. Did Shakespeare follow the dictum "write what you know?" I loved this biography; I feel like I know Shakespeare the man as well as I possibly can! (I listened to it on CD; very well done.)
Bobbye Larson¤

4) Paperback Book Shakespeare: The Biography by Anchor. The following is a review of the Audiobook version of Peter Ackroyd´s "Shakespeare: The Biography" read by Simon Vance.

The hallmark of a good biography is the author´s ability to breathe life into both his subject and the time and place his subject lived. It isn´t enough to tell the story of a man if you fail to put that man in his proper context Peter Ackroyd has a gift for bringing both his subject (for example, see The Life of Thomas More) and a time and place (for example, see London: The Biography) alive.

In "Shakespeare: The Biography" Ackroyd brilliant re-creates the milieu of both Stratford-on-Avon and London by culling a great deal of source material. Ackroyd captures both the startling seditious plots against Elizabeth I as well as the mundane land transfers and legal court cases of the day.

In rendering Shakespeare, Ackroyd makes amply sure the reader is aware that there is not much material (other than his collected works) to which to draw from. When Ackroyd is positing a hypothesis about the whereabouts or the attitudes of Shakespeare, he alerts the reader that he is doing so. He provides the evidence for which he posits his hypothesis and even offers alternatives and allows the reader to choose.

"Shakespeare: The Biography" turns out to be just as much a "biography" of the collected works of Shakespeare as it is a biography of the man. All of Shakespeare´s "accepted" works are represented and some it is speculated that he wrote.

The narration by Simon Vance is phenomenal. By the end, I easily concluded that if Simon Vance were to read the local phone book, I would probably listen to it. Vance´s voice is clear and distinct. His diction is spot on.

All in all, I would highly recommend "Shakespeare: The Biography" in any format you could get your hands on.¤

5) Paperback Book Shakespeare: The Biography by Anchor. A very readable book that perhaps repeats what thewriter believed to be shakespeare´s many facets and qualities. Chapters are very short and invite the reader to carry on reading. It is an easy read book, filled with lots of fascinating information and one that i would recommend to someone wanting not just to find out a lot about Shakespeare but someone who wanted him set into his slot in history.¤

6) Paperback Book Shakespeare: The Biography by Anchor. Drawing on an exceptional combination of skills as literary biographer, novelist, and chronicler of London history, Peter Ackroyd surely re-creates the world that shaped Shakespeare--and brings the playwright himself into unusually vivid focus. With characteristic narrative panache, Ackroyd immerses us in sixteenth-century Stratford and the rural landscape–the industry, the animals, even the flowers–that would appear in Shakespeare’s plays. He takes us through Shakespeare’s London neighborhood and the fertile, competitive theater world where he worked as actor and writer. He shows us Shakespeare as a businessman, and as a constant reviser of his writing. In joining these intimate details with profound intuitions about the playwright and his work, Ackroyd has produced an altogether engaging masterpiece.¤

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 13-Nov-2008, 140007598X9781400075980, 170-410-720-7X0-8X1-Q4B-8

Shakespeare: The Biography, Book, Image © Anchor

Search: Anchor, Book Posters, Book Art