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Shakespeare: The World as a Stage | 
 enlarge | Author: Bill Bryson
Publisher: HarperPress
Category: Book
List Price: £15.99
Buy New: £8.30
You Save: £7.69 (48%)
New (19) Used (3) from £5.06
Rating:  55 reviews
Sales Rank: 114583
Format: Audiobook, Cd, Unabridged
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Unabridged
Number Of Items: 5
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 1
ISBN: 0007262183
EAN: 9780007262182
ASIN: 0007262183
Publication Date: September 3, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 wickedly funny book November 12, 2007
Ms. Claire Mcdaid (Glasgow)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Bryson's quick wit and sharp sense of irony is displayed in perfect form when discussing the worlds favourite playwrite! The book was a pleasure to read and there were laughs on almost every page while none of the information within the book is sacrificed for comedic purposes. A very infromative book that was also highly entertaining - my only complaint is that it's a too short but other than that well worth reading!
Know less - know more January 2, 2008
Michael J. Hunt (England)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
After reading this entertaining book I now know less about Shakespeare than I knew before. This is not a criticism of the book, more a criticism of the thousands of misleading and ill-researched books and essays about this mysterious (not necessarily deliberately mysterious) man.
Bill Bryson appears to have been meticulous in his research in that he only uses proven facts(i.e. documented from first-hand, un-disproven sources) to support this, necessarily, slim book. The reason why it's a slim book is that there are so few un-disproven sources available, public records being what they were in the 16th and early 17th centuries. He also shows the pointlessness of adducing anything about Shakespeare's character from his writing, since it's impossible to separate his own voice from that of his characters.
About Shakespeare, the man, little is known. Huge chunks of his life have been obliterated with the passage of time, which leaves it open to speculation, of which there has been no let-up since about two hundred years after his death. This has led to a conspiracy theorist's charter, which covers his sexuality (which could still have been 'three ways', given the lack of evidence, apart from his his being married and having three children, none of whom were ever questioned about their father) to his character (the evidence of which is ambiguous) and, even, to his very existence (at least as the writer). On this latter point cojecture is rife, but there is even less un-disproven evidence to support it (i.e. nil) and his non-existence as a writer would have required an impossible degree of secrecy by numerous literate and reliable individuals in London at the time, including members of two Royal households and his 'rival' playwright, Ben Jonson.
Even one 'fact' that I've always believed to be true about Shakespeare turns out only to be a 'best guess' - i.e. that he spent time before his arrival in London, as a player/tutor to a Lancashire Catholic family (the Hoghtons).
One major thing that I wasn't aware of before (there are also many minor things in this book that I wasn't aware of) is the hugely important role that two of his contemporaries played in preserving his works for posterity. Had it not been for Henry Condell and John Hemingse none of his marvellous plays would have been saved, and we English, and our wonderful language, would have been the poorer to a massive degree.
For those who believe that Francis Bacon, or the Earl of Derby, or a Frenchman called Jaques Pierre, or any one of dozens of 'contenders' for Shakespeare's throne, reading this book will be like taking a dip in the Thames in mid-winter - unless your constitution's up to it, don't go near it. Otherwise, it's a safe book to read if you are interested in the English language in general, or the theatre in particular.
Not just for Shakespeare fans! April 11, 2008
happyreviewer (UK)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I bought this book because I'm a fan of Bill Bryson and history books generally. (And because it was half price, but that is neither here nor there.) I must stress that my only interest in Shakespeare is as an historical figure living in interesting times. That's why I bought it. His work is for far more literate and genteel people! But I absolutely loved this book. For what it is -- a witty introduction and guide to the whole Shakespeare experience! -- I thought it was faultless. Bryson tells us what we need to know and what we need to take with a pinch of salt (which turns out to be nearly everything!) and he does it in his own inimitable avuncular style. I haven't enjoyed a book so much (or felt so intellectual!) for a long time. So Bryson's done a good job. However, I have a bone to pick with the publishers. Why no illustrations? No portraits (admittedly there are no 'cast-iron' ones), no facsimiles of the oft-cited historical documents or scratchy signatures, no quaint maps. Nothing. I don't know why this happens with Bryson particularly, but I noticed it too in his A Short History of Nearly Everything. Perhaps they were trying to avoid tired old cliches. But I like to rest every so often and a picture can be good to mull over and collect thoughts.
a biography in plain English December 21, 2007
R. Bryan (England)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Structured and analytical, gets to the point without digressing into other issues. Brilliant introduction to Shakespeare. Enough for the layman. For Students, universities are full of Shakespeare.
Wish other biographies were as well written. Deserves a prize for clarity.
Ron Bryan
A joy of a book January 12, 2008
Philip Spires (La Nucia, Spain)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
At the start of Shakespeare Bill Bryson apologises for the fact that there is not much to tell. Every aspect of the bard's physical presence on the planet seems to be shrouded in doubt and mystery. We don't even know what he looked like. We don't know much about where he lived, or what he did with his time, apart from write and act. And, though we think we know a reasonable amount about what Will wrote, we know next to nothing about how his works were performed, alongside zero about what role the writer, himself, performed.
So, having apologised for presenting a non-book with a non-story, Bill Bryson proceeds to fill two hundred pages with pure, unadulterated delight. The text provides context, detail and background. It is less than adulatory on the surface, apparently determined to stay within the bounds of the known and the probable. But when Bill Bryson does offer opinion, he reveals a clear and deeply felt love and admiration, almost worship, for his subject.
The book is an absolute joy from beginning to end. Perhaps there really aren't any new facts or figures to discover, but Bill Bryson's account of Shakespeare's life has enough detail, biographical, critical and contextual, to offer as rounded a picture of the writer as we are likely to get. There are numerous Bryson humorous asides, of course, and these only add to the clarity of the piece.
In this slim work, Bryson offers a potted biography, snippets of literary criticism, some illuminating linguistics, much associated history - both of the era and the scholarship, and even a quick guided tour of the pretenders to the myth.
By the end the reader can only marvel at how much an assumed bedrock of national culture and identity could have been laid down by the sedimentation of so little material. But then, of course, there's the works, which speak for themselves.
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