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dragonflymorning's review against another edition
5.0
Excellent introduction into the life of Shakespeare that doesn't romanticize or delve into the realm of pseudo history. I'm looking forward to using it as a start to our Shakespeare study next year with my teens.
emmabeckman's review against another edition
4.0
For what this is (a short, overview biography of a notoriously elusive figure), I thought it was really well done. I sometimes felt the humor was a little overdone, but I haven't read any other Bill Bryson yet and I've heard it's pretty typical of him. I think this book would be a really good one for high schoolers to be assigned in conjunction with whatever play they might be reading: it's short enough and funny enough that they wouldn't feel like it was a big burden to read. Personally, I believe that Shakespeare is one author that must be studied in context. A lot of the reasons why I believe that are covered in this book, so I won't list them here.
farahsarish's review against another edition
5.0
This book is witty, entertaining, and incredibly helpful. It reads like an NPR story - each chapter starts out in one place, take a rather odd turn, yet somehow manages to get right back to where it began. Bryson is brilliant. I found this book very informative without being dull, and at some points was reduced to tears because he is so funny. Highly recommend.
valeriemoore85's review against another edition
4.0
Bill Bryson takes a bit of a detour from his usual writing style in this biography of Shakespeare. While Bryson generally writes about his own personal experiences, in this book he is writing about what little is known of the most famous writer of the English language. Despite this departure, Shakespeare: The World As Stage is not without Bryson's trademark humor. Bryson is able to bring to life the period in which Shakespeare lived. He sticks mostly to the facts, and rarely ventures into conjecture as some biographies of Shakespeare tend to do. Bryson describes the bits of evidence that have been found regarding Shakespeare, from his marriage to Anne Hathaway, the birth of his children, the move to London, the tax evasion, the signing of his will and his eventual death. He describes the frustration that scholars have faced in regards to the limited amount of information about when Shakespeare actually wrote his plays, and in what order. Bryson celebrates the editors who had the good sense to actually publish Shakespeare's plays, allowing them to be preserved for years to come. He acknowledges the vast influence Shakespeare has had on the English language as a whole. (Several common phrases used today were coined by Shakespeare.) He even presents several theories about whether Shakespeare was in fact the author of the many plays he has be credited with writing, although Bryson does seem to disagree with such theories. And despite the fact that this biography is mostly retellings of bits and pieces of facts and rumors, Bryson was able to create a cohesive story that is easy to understand and enjoy. While this may not be a title for a serious Shakespearean scholar, it is certainly worth sharing with any fan of history or Shakespeare's works.
awesomebrandi's review against another edition
5.0
This was a fun and engaging read. It had a lot of the same facts I have read elsewhere, but it also had different information or more depth on things only passed over. I actually laughed out loud at some bits of the book. I would recommend this to anybody interested in Shakespeare that may not be a fan of bigger, more dry biographies.