Shakespeare

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Not Bryson the humourist - Rated
This is the only Bryson I have read which I thought lacking in his characteristic wit. He tells us that little is known about The Bard. He starts with his portraits but the book has no illustrations. He does give us rich historical context for the bard so we do learn a lot about his world and how slowly his historic reputation grew. He debunks the critics who want Baconian or other supposed authorship. One clear prejudice comes through. Bryson dislikes the Puritans. He describes them as a threat to Christian orthodoxy and attributes their fleeing to the American wilderness to their refusal to embrace tolerance rather than to their true motivation, reform of an intolerant Church of England which under the Stuarts wanted to enforce conformity in worship, a folly which gave us not only Pilgrims but civil war.

Not prudish - Rated
I am just reading Bryson's "Shakespeare" and came across a remark saying that the swan's language is ""quite clean, indeed almost prudish" (page 111 of the paperback edition). This statement is not true. One should consult a book on Shakespeare's bawdy by Ertic Partridge and it can easily be recognized that Shakespeare was a "dirty" as almost all his contemporaries (e.g. Middleton)in specific situations. Especially people who have left the path of the heavenly order are inclined to speak in ambiguities, one meaning always being really obscene. Just contact the porter scene. Munch of it which is generally called dark becomes quite plausible when you make your imagination flow.

Bill Bryson bring his own inimitable style to well trodden ground. - Rated


Bill Bryson cuts through the layers of myth and goes back to the primary source documents that are available about the English language's greatest writer.

He has a clear love of his subject - both the man and the work - and the enthusiasm come through on every page. He seamlessly mixes analysis of the writing with biographical detail and historical context.
He does speculate a little but makes it clear when he is doing so, and why.

One disappointment is that the book ends with his debunking of the Shakespeare conspiracy theorists. Although this is well done, it is a negative note to end what is otherwise a bright, entertaining and informative book.

Fascinating and accessible approach to Shakespeare - Rated
I really enjoyed this book. It was a quick and easy read, admittedly, but it does not bill itself as a Shakepeare textbook or biography and would be a different animal if it was. If you take it at face value, it's a fun read, helped along by Bryson's amusing style.

Read this even if you are bored by Shakespeare - Rated
Bought it as a background book to a historical novel on Shakespeare. I knew so little about the man.It is one of the best books I read all year. Bryson explains with great clarity how scholars are forced to deduce so much with very little hard evidence. Even the basic facts that 'every school-child knows' are really conjectures. No contemporary manuscript of his plays exists. His birthday (23 April) is based upon assumptions drawn from his baptism. Even his picture may not be him. Bryson then dances his way through the host of theories, myths and scholastic analysis over the past five hundred years like a wiry court jester. It helped me make sense of it all and even become quite excited. I finally understood the significance of the different folios/quartos - and even more amazingly, I cared. For the first time in 30 odd years I had the urge to re-read Shakespeare's plays and I even thought about buying an audio-tape of Macbeth. I didn't but my hand hesitantly stretched out towards the shelf before I put it down again.