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carokfulf's review against another edition
5.0
With his book, Greenblatt crafts an absorbing biography that is as simple and as whole as its subject's work.
e_reader77's review against another edition
4.0
Two best chapters: "Master-Mistress" (focused on the sonnets) and "Speaking with the Dead" (Hamlet)
isabella_najarian's review against another edition
I’ve read other books by this author that I love…this one was just too speculative.
melissa_who_reads's review against another edition
4.0
Enjoyed it tremendously: very readable, very good scholarship. Didn't catch him in any outrageous errors in theater history; his portrayal of the world of the theater and its interactions with Elizabethan/Jacobean theater made sense. Will was amazingly accomplished, well beyond his wordcraft: he must have been an exceptionally busy man when he was in London. The teases are there as well -- the things we'll never know, as there is nothing surviving to tell us -- why he went off to London to seek his fortune in the theater, what his relationship with his wife really was like, who his loves were, who were his closest friends. His relationships with the other sharers in the King's Men must have remained cordial throughout his life, as he seems to have retired on his own terms, not because of an argument or break with his collaborators. One thing I got from reading Greenblatt's description -- during the part when he was talking about the subtext in the plays -- was how confident WS must have been in his actors, and how truly remarkable the whole company must have been. He was writing for specific people: and those men, the first to act in those plays, must have been extraordinary to carry them off as well as they did.
jearlenbaugh7's review against another edition
5.0
A surprisingly comprehensive survey of not only Shakespeare’s known life (found mostly in real estate transactions, county records, and of course his plays) but of Early Modern England in its beautifully complex and intricate cultural transitions. The portraits of both Elizabeth and James were especially entertaining, as were the inner workings of the “University Wits” that were so profoundly outshone by Shakespeare. Basically, Greenblatt is a breath of fresh air compared to the dense academia I’ve been steeped in. Will read more.
iceberg0's review against another edition
4.0
Compelling biography of Shakespeare that acknowledges clearly when the author is engaging in speculation.
barrsfca's review against another edition
3.0
This is a pretty speculative account of his childhood ("as a child in those times, William certainly would have encountered..."); I found that pretty annoying. This would have been more meaningful if I knew a LOT more of the dialog from this plays...it ties a lot of life events to those quotes.