Tuesday, August 21, 2007
JUST FINISHED: A Year In The Life of William Shakespeare: 1599 by James Shapiro. For some reason, this one called out to me from the Barnes & Noble cut-out table, and since Shakespeare looms large on the list (remember the list? I know I sure do...), I felt that it was worth a tumble.
My big issue with Shakespeare biographies is that for concrete info about his life, we're left with a long string of dates, comings and goings, births and deaths...and that's pretty much it. Biographers might as well be writing speculative fiction. Shapiro's approach in today's book makes more sense: to choose a year (in this case he chose 1599, arguably the turning point of Shakespeare's career), look into its events, cut it open and climb inside it, then use that knowledge to dig into that year's plays. As it turns out, there was a lot going on in Elizabethan England that year. The queen appointed the Earl of Essex, a former court favorite whose charm had curdled, to quell an Irish rebellion (lots of easy parallels with the current US situation if you look into the details), culminating in a meeting which Shapiro calls "the end of chivalry in England". Meanwhile, the threat of a new Spanish Armada gave the capital a special kind of war jitters, and the London merchants, responding to the economic threat of the Dutch merchant fleets, established the East India Company, the true starting point of the British Empire and the birth of globalism. Also, a new kind of literature, the personal essay, was beginning to insinuate itself among the inteligencia.
Shapiro did well the job he chose to do; the material relating Shakespeare's world to his work was very involving. The only part that didn't quite pull me in, oddly enough, was the chapter about his relations (or lack thereof) with his family. Here's where the absence of solid biographical details hurts the most; the refrain "we just don't know" rings louder than in any other section.
That aside, A Year In The Life is an involving read for people interested in the plays and the times, and it definitely doesn't hurt that it's geared for the non-academic reader. Like the man says in the introduction, if you've seen Shakespeare In Love, this book will help you meet Shakespeare at work.
My big issue with Shakespeare biographies is that for concrete info about his life, we're left with a long string of dates, comings and goings, births and deaths...and that's pretty much it. Biographers might as well be writing speculative fiction. Shapiro's approach in today's book makes more sense: to choose a year (in this case he chose 1599, arguably the turning point of Shakespeare's career), look into its events, cut it open and climb inside it, then use that knowledge to dig into that year's plays. As it turns out, there was a lot going on in Elizabethan England that year. The queen appointed the Earl of Essex, a former court favorite whose charm had curdled, to quell an Irish rebellion (lots of easy parallels with the current US situation if you look into the details), culminating in a meeting which Shapiro calls "the end of chivalry in England". Meanwhile, the threat of a new Spanish Armada gave the capital a special kind of war jitters, and the London merchants, responding to the economic threat of the Dutch merchant fleets, established the East India Company, the true starting point of the British Empire and the birth of globalism. Also, a new kind of literature, the personal essay, was beginning to insinuate itself among the inteligencia.
Shapiro did well the job he chose to do; the material relating Shakespeare's world to his work was very involving. The only part that didn't quite pull me in, oddly enough, was the chapter about his relations (or lack thereof) with his family. Here's where the absence of solid biographical details hurts the most; the refrain "we just don't know" rings louder than in any other section.
That aside, A Year In The Life is an involving read for people interested in the plays and the times, and it definitely doesn't hurt that it's geared for the non-academic reader. Like the man says in the introduction, if you've seen Shakespeare In Love, this book will help you meet Shakespeare at work.
Labels: books
|| Eric 7:08 AM#
Sunday, March 18, 2007
JUST FINISHED: Reading Like a Writer: A Guide For People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them by Francine Prose. As someone who's trying to work up the nerve to start writing again, the title struck me in a good place, and the book didn't disappoint. Prose builds the book around the sensible idea that with the great writers, every word and every sentence is there for a reason, and if you want to figure out how to they do it, you should start with a close reading of what they put on the page. She then walks us through (sometimes lengthy) excerpts ranging from Tolstoy to Cheever to show us what you can get out of paying attention, both as a reader and a writer. It's a very engaging read, with a style that shows where all those books will get you. She also includes a list of "books to be read immediately", which is more or less a handy bibliograhy of books covered in the main text. Considering one of the selections is Tales of Anton Chekhov Vols. 1-13, to which she dedicates a whole chapter, Prose must have an odd concept of "immediately".
At least one online critic doesn't see advice to writers in anything but the first and the last chapters. He obviously read a different book than I did, or more likely has the maddening idea that writers are too busy writing to read somebody else. If you're just looking for exercises, Writing Down The Bones is still in stores.
At least one online critic doesn't see advice to writers in anything but the first and the last chapters. He obviously read a different book than I did, or more likely has the maddening idea that writers are too busy writing to read somebody else. If you're just looking for exercises, Writing Down The Bones is still in stores.
Labels: books
|| Eric 1:45 PM#
