Customer Reviews
There's small choice in rotten apples - By: Mark Slattery, 11 Aug 2008 
Bill Bryson is more or less supermanin today's literary world. He transcends subjectsin a single bound & the globein another. He's a talented critic, writer & humourist. It's a good job, to use modern vernacular, that he's the daddy because, with this one, he's taken on the mother of all literary subjects.
He's done so wisely. He's not attempted to become an original researcher & posit new theories about the man's identity or his plays & other works. He has essentially evaluated & sumamrised the existing state of Shakepearian debate & study, providing his own critique of what is compelling & credible. Thankfully, Bryson was born without a 'boredom gene' & the book reaches any audience, reading so easily. The man does not do dull.
Typically, Bryson's prose is litered with diverting & revealing anecdoes, we get a potted physical history of the theatre alongside the exposition of the central figure. Bryson is expert at demonstrating the lack of hard information about Shakespeaare (I spelled that incorrectly, but then, so did the Bard...) & the vulnerability about the claims & surmises made about his life & character. That will no doubt ruffle feathers. I found it interesting to learn that Shakespeare had thieved so many of his stories from others. As also did I find the battle for written English over Latin. The fact there were lost plays is new to me too. So to non-Shakespeare scholars this offers a lot.
To those who are scholars I am not sure it will be depthy enough to satisfy but they are not the prime audience I'd suppose. Bryson's great economy of expression, wit & clarity mean he is less self-indulgentin this book than perhaps any other of his that I have read (which is all but one, that being the African diaries). Although always near the surface, his trademark wit is lessin evidence, reserved for a full scale assault on those who feel Shakespeare was somebody else. That business is clearly a cottage industry & I know Bryson has trodden on somebody else's cucumbers here by reason of the ridicule he heaps on the alternate theories.
It is a short book. There could have been more. But how much more was truly needed? And at whatever point should he have stopped on an almost inexhaustible subject populated by many including purists & pedants? Nevertheless one gets the impression he made a judgement about the length that possibly excluded a little more hard work examining various omissions from the life of the Bard & those who knew or worked with him.
Bryson's book has one central curiosity. It is really the oppositite of a biography - more a book about what we don't know than what we do - & that is refreshingin itself. I think he's done a first rate job here given how well aired the subject is.
And for his next trick...?
Incidentally, the title I gave to this is a quote from one of the Bard's plays & seems to convey Bryson's attitude to much of the literature he discovered!
Informative, entertaining and readable - By: P. Matthews, 06 Aug 2008 Any biographer of Shakespeare is faced with a problem: the known facts about Shakespeare's life would only fill one rather short chapter. Some biographers discuss at length various speculations about possible eventsin his life, but Bill Bryson wisely avoids most of this, briefly dismissing, for example, the story that he was caught poaching.
Instead, Bryson fills the book with a colourful depiction of lifein Elizabethan England, describing for example food & drink, religion, the theatre, & the city of London. My only criticism of the book is that some of the historical stories, such as the Spanish Armada, the Essex rebellion & the gunpowder plot, will already be known to many readers.
Bryson has clearly taken his research seriously, & interviewed leading Shakespeare scholars as well as visiting the Folger library where many of the First Folios are kept.
Particularly entertaining is the final chapter where Bryson debunks the various theories (one of them proposed by a Thomas Looney) that the plays were written by someone else.
This is an informative & enjoyable book, & much easier to read than the more substantial Shakespeare biographies.
Enjoyable and informative - By: Mr. R. Lewin, 04 Aug 2008 This is an easy to enjoy book offering the latest thinking on the world's greatest playwright, writtenin Bryson's typical witty & brisk style. It can be read over a short period of time -in fact, you find yourself wishing it was longer.
One of the most common phrasesin the book is 'nothing is known about...' or 'very little is known about...' Bryson does not include information that is not fully backed up, or if he does, he discounts it. So there are times when you become a little exasperated at the lack of information. But the book is never less than highly entertaining, & full of piquant anecdotes & nuggets of information.
Combining facts and humour - By: Linda Oskam, 02 Aug 2008 When Bill Bryson is going to tackle a subject like William Shakespeare, you know that it is going to informative & very funny, an excellent combination. In his usual wry style Bill Bryson tries to unravel fact & fiction about Shakespeare's life, time & works. Because of the scarcity of facts, people have over the ages made up whole stories based on no evidence whatsoever. Also, there was (and is) a strong movement that Shakespeare's plays were not written be Shakespeare, because they consider him too much of a country yokel to write about the sophisticated topics coveredin his plays. Bill bryson describes the timesin which Shakespeare was alive, including the wayin which theaters & plays were run, & makes a convincing case for not over-fantasizing, but also a realistic believe that Shakespeare has actually existed. A very readible book that combines fact & humorin a very pleasant way.
Excellent ...but... - By: An uncommon reader, 26 Jul 2008 I am a great Bill Bryson fan ...and I did enjoy this book.
When you see the Bryson name on the front, you know it is a mark of quality. What is contained within will inform & carry with it the trademark Bryson wit. This book will not disappoint. There is much to inform here but there is also rather a lot of assumptions. I don't actually believe that William Shakespeare was the actual author of the plays that bear his name, but all that is academic - Bryson offers us a lively debate.
This is a good book - worthy of 4 stars, but I can't help wishing that Mr Bryson would go back to what he excels at.
In his absence, a new book called 'Shakespeare My Butt!' by a new author on the block, debunks the Shakespeare argumentin just one chapter & the rest of the book takes us back into the a Brysonesque world as it tours around the bizarre named placesin Britain, amongst other things.
Quick Mr Bryson - excellent book & all that, but get back to your travel writing before someone steals your throne.
