Reviews

• Another marvelous book on Shakespeare by Professor James Shapiro, who walks in to the streets of the then England and goes around looking at the socio-political conditions and how they have influenced Shakespeare in churning out the three greatest works of all time- King Lear, Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra. Shapiro uses his genius in reconstructing the times and in elucidating their impact on the genius of Shakespeare. It's a difficult and dangerous job bordering on speculation and little historical record. It's really like walking on thin ice in trying to visualize or concretise on an elusive and obscure personality like Shakespeare. Shapiro does a great job in trying to convince us to the point of sometimes being too exhaustive on some of the historical details. In spite of these scholastic meanderings he gets back to the enigmatic narrative of Shakespeare. James Shapiro, Stephen Greenblatt and Jonathan Bate are professors and Shakespearean scholars of eminence who contributed their best in digging about the enigmatically baffling Bard of Avon. In the process, they gave out some of the outstanding books on Shakespeare and put to rest the questions of Shakespeare's authorship. This latest book by Shapiro comes as a sequel to his earlier one '1509: A year in the life of Shakespeare'. As all sequels are, this one is also a little disappointing compared with its prequel. The prequel was a real stunner! This present one is a little less racy and more exhaustive. But it will not disappoint all the lovers of Shakespeare in terms of his plays, his literature and the history of his times. The earlier work, 1509 was set in Elizabethan period and now this one, 1606 is descriptive of the Jacobean England. Several political issues like the Union Question, the Gun powder Plot, the Plague, and several other issues of the day and their impact on the works of Shakespeare have been lucidly dealt with. A remarkable book that should adorn the library of any Shakespeare fan. The next sequel we can expect from Shapiro should be the year 1610-11 when the magnum Opus of Shakespeare, The Tempest was written!

• Even if it is an interesting book for Its many historical details, it is less exciting than 1599. It is more about history and the gunpowder expecially than about Shakespeare.

• Shapiro's new book on Shakespeare in the year 1606 has been generally well received. Granted, a few lonely bloggers have picked fault because Shapiro isn't writing about Edward de Vere Earl of Oxford (their choice for the man who was Shakespeare) and Germaine Greer moaned in the New Statesman that Shapiro was guilty of "surmising"- about the women in Shakespeare's life -for example, how could Shapiro possibly know whether Shakespeare's daughters lived at home? etc. Greer seems to be reading a different book from he one I read. Shapiro is clear that we still know next to nothing about how Shakespeare felt about issues and his guess on whether the daughters lived at home is hardly a moot point of major controversy. At times Shakespeare does get lost in the detail and contextual knowledge that Shapiro uses to establish him as a Jacobean playwright. The basic thrust of the book is to look at three plays he wrote in 1606 and link them to the torrid time that James was having as the new king of England. King Lear was written at the same time as James was trying and failing to establish formal union between Scotland and England- the perils of a divided nation and all. As usual Shakespeare the magpie (rather than a swan maybe!!) steals from a main existing source another play about "Leir" and brutally remodels it into something like the version we now have. Macbeth is created in the aftermath of the Gunpowder Plot posing and answering the questions- what sort of people commit evil and why? This connected with James long held interest in witchcraft and his happy hobby of exposing it as fakery.....with an underlying fascination with all its symbols and tropes. Finally, Anthony and Cleopatra reflects a nostalgia for the supposedly golden days of Elizabeth. Shapiro provides fascinating chapters providing the context and linking with crystal clarity to the process of writing and creating the plays. If the writer and the man occasionally gets lost the rewards come from soaking up the febrile atmosphere, especially post gunpowder plot that would be wonderfully and creepily realised in Macbeth. The final chapters on the plague also give us a sense of living with real and imagined horrors (Shakespeare rarely if ever refers to plague or tries to depict it). His book is a triumph with the page turning quality of a taught and tight historical novel coupled with the ice cold clarity of a man who knows his subject and much about Jacobean society and mores. Maybe the publishers should have had some fun and charged £16.06 as the price or given away a copy of a play text with the book- it certainly sends you back to the plays and leaves you wanting more. A few early reviews in the papers felt this volume was not as good as his first work- 1599 but I disagree. Its sharp, piquant and on the money in its mastery of James, the period and the plays. There is also an extensive and useful bibliography for anyone who wants to about the subjects covered. Great stuff. Wonder if Shapiro is considering a biography of the man himself- but maybe thats missing the point....

• Ce livre vaut bien son renommée; l'auteur relie savamment les connaissances culturelles avec une attention pointilleuse aux textes. Un régale ... accessible à tous.

• I'ld recommend this book to anyone interested in Shakespeare and history. I knew so little about the time and history following the death of Queen Elizabeth I - now I know a little more, and a little more about what influenced Shakespeare in his writing. The book paints the interesting, colourful background of what happened and yet it always returns to focus very precisely on Shakespeare. Very interesting quotes. An easy read, too.

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