Shakespeare The World As Stage by Bill Bryson

 

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts. "

     -from As You Like It by William Shakespeare

This book was offered at a discount, and I was intrigued because we have season tickets to a theatre where we see a couple of Shakespeare plays each year. A part of The Eminent Lives series of biographies, it is a pretty short read mostly because of how little is actually known about the famous playwright and poet. I learned there are years and events of his life where next to nothing is known about his whereabouts or actions. Although many plays attributed to Shakespeare are confirmed by numerous scholars, no one really knows in what order they were created.

 I was surprised at how many speculations and theories there have been that Shakespeare could not have written all for which he is credited and even naming other writers thought to be responsible. I learned more about the Shakespearean era than I did about the bard himself, interesting facts about England, especially London, and particularly the theatre of that time, and about his contemporaries. The author has caustic things to say about some of these unfounded theories and ends by saying, "Only one man had the circumstances and gifts to give us such incomparable works, and William Shakespeare of Stratford was unquestionably that man---whoever he was."

I am rating this book a 3---definitely not a page-turner---it kept me reading to the end but was not terribly enjoyable.