Reading Shakespeare's Sonnets: A New Commentary
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Review
'What Paterson is really concerned with - and where the book soars above the competition - is how the poems work; how Shakespeare uses and abuses the sonnet form to achieve his effects.
Given that Paterson is one of the finest living poets working in the sonnet form, he brings to this a craftsman's insight and refreshing candour... The great merit of this book - and where it differs from so much academic literary criticism - is that, however eccentric it may occasionally be, it is never dull and frequently brilliant.' --Hugh Thomson, Independent
'An entertaining, exuberant and obsessively passionate guide . . . his measured and engaging essays display a deep and sophisticated understanding of every aspect of the poems ... Even the seasoned Shakespeare aficionado will come away knowing something new or aware of some subtle change of emphasis that might widen their enjoyment and experience of the sonnets ... The insights and opinions the book contains are fascinating... Reading Shakespeare's Sonnets is an impressive work and there is a lifetime of enjoyment to be had from this loquacious and erudite book.' --Adam O'Riordan, Sunday Telegraph
'Like all the best literary criticism, it combines highly sensitive attention to detail - the exact meaning of a word, the way in which a poetic image does its work, the tricks of metrical variation - with due awareness of historical context and specificity. It's also great fun.' --Jonathan Bate, Financial Times --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Given that Paterson is one of the finest living poets working in the sonnet form, he brings to this a craftsman's insight and refreshing candour... The great merit of this book - and where it differs from so much academic literary criticism - is that, however eccentric it may occasionally be, it is never dull and frequently brilliant.' --Hugh Thomson, Independent
'An entertaining, exuberant and obsessively passionate guide . . . his measured and engaging essays display a deep and sophisticated understanding of every aspect of the poems ... Even the seasoned Shakespeare aficionado will come away knowing something new or aware of some subtle change of emphasis that might widen their enjoyment and experience of the sonnets ... The insights and opinions the book contains are fascinating... Reading Shakespeare's Sonnets is an impressive work and there is a lifetime of enjoyment to be had from this loquacious and erudite book.' --Adam O'Riordan, Sunday Telegraph
'Like all the best literary criticism, it combines highly sensitive attention to detail - the exact meaning of a word, the way in which a poetic image does its work, the tricks of metrical variation - with due awareness of historical context and specificity. It's also great fun.' --Jonathan Bate, Financial Times --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Book Description
'Paterson is simply one of the best living poets in the UK.' Jackie Kay, Observer
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
For those unfamiliar with Shakespeare's sonnets, this is an easy-to-read, common-sensible introduction - a great place to start; but remember it is a personal view. If you are familiar with the text and with the usual lit. crit., you will find this idiosyncratic, fresh, and readable as a novel.
After he has said of Vendler's 'The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets', `Her book is a supreme example of the kind of book there should be more of', he adds, `I'm having my copy rubberised so I can catch it again after I've thrown it at the wall.' I feel exactly the same way about his book: there ought to be more like it and sometimes I want to throw it at the wall. If you love Shakespeare, this is a book to which you will not be indifferent.
I did not buy this book earlier because it was criticised for missing objectives that, I now know, Paterson did not have. Did the critics read the Introduction? There, Paterson sets out clearly his purpose. He distinguishes between `secondary reading' (more or less, serious literary criticism) and `primary reading' (more or less, responding directly to what a poem says). He gives as his aim, `to show [the sonnets] as poems still capable of inviting and rewarding the kind of primary reading I've described, and this is what this book sets out to do.' And his book does that superbly.
Paterson's great strength is in being a poet himself and saying, with some authority, things outside the normal range of critical comment, things like `[so-and-so] rather takes it all at face value - as do most other commentators, forgetting that poets often just tell folk what they think they want to hear, themselves included.' It's about time somebody said things like that. And he says many things like that in the book.
No faults? For me, only two irritations. Except for the famous and crucial ones, I do not remember the sonnets by their numbers and I would have liked an index of first lines. And an index to the commentary would be useful so that you can find the interesting bits, like `where did Paterson discuss rime riche?' He discusses a lot of interesting things in the commentary but finding them is hell. Perhaps he omitted indexes to keep away from even a semblance of heavy lit. crit.
This is a book where you can hear the writer's voice come through, and he's talking sense.
After he has said of Vendler's 'The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets', `Her book is a supreme example of the kind of book there should be more of', he adds, `I'm having my copy rubberised so I can catch it again after I've thrown it at the wall.' I feel exactly the same way about his book: there ought to be more like it and sometimes I want to throw it at the wall. If you love Shakespeare, this is a book to which you will not be indifferent.
I did not buy this book earlier because it was criticised for missing objectives that, I now know, Paterson did not have. Did the critics read the Introduction? There, Paterson sets out clearly his purpose. He distinguishes between `secondary reading' (more or less, serious literary criticism) and `primary reading' (more or less, responding directly to what a poem says). He gives as his aim, `to show [the sonnets] as poems still capable of inviting and rewarding the kind of primary reading I've described, and this is what this book sets out to do.' And his book does that superbly.
Paterson's great strength is in being a poet himself and saying, with some authority, things outside the normal range of critical comment, things like `[so-and-so] rather takes it all at face value - as do most other commentators, forgetting that poets often just tell folk what they think they want to hear, themselves included.' It's about time somebody said things like that. And he says many things like that in the book.
No faults? For me, only two irritations. Except for the famous and crucial ones, I do not remember the sonnets by their numbers and I would have liked an index of first lines. And an index to the commentary would be useful so that you can find the interesting bits, like `where did Paterson discuss rime riche?' He discusses a lot of interesting things in the commentary but finding them is hell. Perhaps he omitted indexes to keep away from even a semblance of heavy lit. crit.
This is a book where you can hear the writer's voice come through, and he's talking sense.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I learned about this book from an article Don Paterson wrote for The Guardian and his concept of approaching the sonnets as a modern reader appealed to me. In the article as in the book, Paterson's concludes that Shakespeare was gay, which must have touched a raw nerve as he drew a lot of negative comments. However, that did not put me off ordering the book and I am very much enjoying Paterson's down-to-earth and witty commentary on the sonnets. The only reason I gave the book four rather than five stars is that the editor failed to correct a lot of typos or at least I hope the errors I have found are typos. Presumably, they will be corrected before the paperback is published.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
A fan of Shakespeare's Sonnets for as long as I can remember reading, I, like Don Paterson, still do not know them as well as I'd like to think - and, like Don Paterson, have been caught out in a bluff or two in academic circles accordingly! Reading this book has helped me readjust my thinking as well as improving my knowledge.
This is an individualistic view of the Sonnets from an academic and a poet. Paterson has taken each of the 154 Sonnets in turn and written a Reaction Piece on each: not a critique as such, but an informed individual's response written in one sitting, effectively. The learning which has informed the reaction is always interesting, and if the style at times is a little too colloquial to make easy the transition between Shakespeare's verse (each Sonnet is printed before the response) and Don Paterson's prose, at least this reinforces the dialogue which Paterson is building between writer and reader. It also helps to break down the false reverence for "The Bard", something that can come between a real relationship with the work itself.
I also like the way that Paterson looks at the Sonnets as works of craft as well as of art: the poet pulling together complex emotions into a standard sonnet form, at times it seems hammering language and emotion into a shape that works.
I don't agree with a lot of what Paterson says (well, actually I agree with much, but it's the disagreements that stand out - for example his reaction to Sonnet 144!) but that only makes the text more engaging, and actually helped to sharpen up my own critical response. It's also spurred me to learn by heart more of the Sonnets, and (re)introduced me to some that I MUST have read but had no recollection of whatsoever!
Perhaps my final comment to show how good this book is: I lent it to a colleague two weeks ago, and she refuses to give it back!
This is an individualistic view of the Sonnets from an academic and a poet. Paterson has taken each of the 154 Sonnets in turn and written a Reaction Piece on each: not a critique as such, but an informed individual's response written in one sitting, effectively. The learning which has informed the reaction is always interesting, and if the style at times is a little too colloquial to make easy the transition between Shakespeare's verse (each Sonnet is printed before the response) and Don Paterson's prose, at least this reinforces the dialogue which Paterson is building between writer and reader. It also helps to break down the false reverence for "The Bard", something that can come between a real relationship with the work itself.
I also like the way that Paterson looks at the Sonnets as works of craft as well as of art: the poet pulling together complex emotions into a standard sonnet form, at times it seems hammering language and emotion into a shape that works.
I don't agree with a lot of what Paterson says (well, actually I agree with much, but it's the disagreements that stand out - for example his reaction to Sonnet 144!) but that only makes the text more engaging, and actually helped to sharpen up my own critical response. It's also spurred me to learn by heart more of the Sonnets, and (re)introduced me to some that I MUST have read but had no recollection of whatsoever!
Perhaps my final comment to show how good this book is: I lent it to a colleague two weeks ago, and she refuses to give it back!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Scholarship meets Colloquial
Don Paterson is a lively and friendly -- funny even -- guide to the sonnets. It is clear, moreover, that he means it when he says he wrote the book in all kinds of states and... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Stephen Sinclair
At Best You will Chuckle, his unscholarly mess, At Worst it could Ruin...
Certainly his comments about The Sonnets may be illuminating for someone who has not a clue about how to unpack a conceit or decipher a metaphor, but he leaves almost no room for... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Sky Smith
Lovely, companionable book
This is a complete gem - conversational, funny, wears its erudition lightly but still technical and scholarly when needed. Read more
Published 6 months ago by agleader
Stimulating Sonnetry
This is a hugely enjoyable read, bringing the sonnets alive to modern readers; a passionate and engaging polemic which was disastrously misunderstood by Adam Mars Jones in the... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Russell Hall
Listmania!
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