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Review
'[A] deeply considered and stimulating book, informed throughout by the author's intimate knowledge of the literature and society of Shakespeare's age... These scenes from Shakespeare's life...offer refreshing alternative points of view that no future biographers will be able to ignore' --Stanley Wells, TLS
'It is unquestionably the best Shakespearean biography of the new century' --Jonathan Bate, Sunday Telegraph
'...a model of lucid scholarship which tries neither to beatify nor vilify its subject, but to present [Shakespeare] as a living figure in the heat and the dust of the passing world' --The Times
'It is unquestionably the best Shakespearean biography of the new century' --Jonathan Bate, Sunday Telegraph
'...a model of lucid scholarship which tries neither to beatify nor vilify its subject, but to present [Shakespeare] as a living figure in the heat and the dust of the passing world' --The Times
Review
'[A] deeply considered and stimulating book, informed throughout by the author's intimate knowledge of the literature and society of Shakespeare's age... These scenes from Shakespeare's life...offer refreshing alternative points of view that no future biographers will be able to ignore Stanley Wells, TLS 'It is unquestionably the best Shakespearean biography of the new century' Jonathan Bate, Sunday Telegraph '...a model of lucid scholarship which tries neither to beatify nor vilify its subject, but to present [Shakespeare] as a living figure in the heat and the dust of the passing world' The Times 'Katherine Duncan-Jones's constantly illuminating and hugely enjoyable biography restores the author and his plays to bubbly life...Duncan-Jones triumphantly constructs an upsetting trajectory from playful youth to rancorous skinflint, through which art matures even as character hardens' The Observer 'Engrossing...Her account of Shakespeare's hypothetical entry into the theatrical profession is a tour de force of biographical reconstruction...Katherine Duncan-Jones shines light into dark corners and brings skeletons out of the closet. Her courageous biography is partisan, idiosyncratic, and unforgettable. Anyone seriously interested in Shakespeare should read it.' Shakespeare Quarterly 'A brilliant book...Fresh and original.' Literary Review
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Katherine Duncan-Jones is a controversial but very engaging Shakespearean. We sense that she doesn't have much time for those bardolaters who present the man as anything other than the evidence strongly suggests he might have been: materialistic, miserly, homosexually inclined, misogynistic and, of course, a jack-of-all-trade genius who could please whatever audience he wanted. The thrust of Duncan-Jones' study is that Shakespeare was probably all of the above. So, like Jonson's Folio judgement on Shakespeare, Duncan-Jones is very much 'this side idolatry'.
If you know either of Duncan-Jones' editions in the Arden series (Shakespeare's Sonnets and, co-authored with HJ Woodhuysen, Poems) you might expect there to be insights and ingenuity aplenty. You would not be disappointed. Among other things, KD-J considers that the dialogue between Touchstone and William in AYL dramatises Shakespeare self-communing: the two characters represent the court entertainer Shakespeare had become and his younger self, helping to make AYL the author's 'most explicitly personal play'. Shakespeare's stance on religion (that provoker of much heated debate): 'indolence'. His non-attendance at church may well be explained, she argues, by his dislike of being bored by a tedious sermon while having to avoid creditors and pot-holes on the mile-long and muddy trudge from Henley Street/New Place to Holy Trinity.
Most shocking (and compelling) of all is the suggestion that Shakespeare, before or during his lodging in the licentious Turnbull Street, either contracted syphilis or believed he had. The dark palette of his later plays and Sonnets complements his shabby and sordid abode, while his partnership with the unsavoury George Wilkins during this period puts Shakespeare's 'misogynistic' works (like Sonnets and Troilus) in firmer context. While the former kicked the bodies of prostitutes, the latter blackened the image of women in print.
This series of autobiographical sketches presents very much the other side of the coin to that we have become used to seeing. According to Duncan-Jones, the swan of Avon may well have been very far removed from the 'gentle master Shakespeare' of our national mythologizing.
If you know either of Duncan-Jones' editions in the Arden series (Shakespeare's Sonnets and, co-authored with HJ Woodhuysen, Poems) you might expect there to be insights and ingenuity aplenty. You would not be disappointed. Among other things, KD-J considers that the dialogue between Touchstone and William in AYL dramatises Shakespeare self-communing: the two characters represent the court entertainer Shakespeare had become and his younger self, helping to make AYL the author's 'most explicitly personal play'. Shakespeare's stance on religion (that provoker of much heated debate): 'indolence'. His non-attendance at church may well be explained, she argues, by his dislike of being bored by a tedious sermon while having to avoid creditors and pot-holes on the mile-long and muddy trudge from Henley Street/New Place to Holy Trinity.
Most shocking (and compelling) of all is the suggestion that Shakespeare, before or during his lodging in the licentious Turnbull Street, either contracted syphilis or believed he had. The dark palette of his later plays and Sonnets complements his shabby and sordid abode, while his partnership with the unsavoury George Wilkins during this period puts Shakespeare's 'misogynistic' works (like Sonnets and Troilus) in firmer context. While the former kicked the bodies of prostitutes, the latter blackened the image of women in print.
This series of autobiographical sketches presents very much the other side of the coin to that we have become used to seeing. According to Duncan-Jones, the swan of Avon may well have been very far removed from the 'gentle master Shakespeare' of our national mythologizing.
0 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I enjoyed this book - after a slow start
She covers aspects of the Bard missed by others and it all became interesting
Recommended, but not the greatest
She covers aspects of the Bard missed by others and it all became interesting
Recommended, but not the greatest
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
first-rate bio
25 Sep 2010
Format:Paperback
God knows how many biographies have been written of William Shakespeare, the quality ranging from horrible to excellent. As someone who has taught Shakespeare for 30 years, I can attest to this extraordinary breadth in quality. Authors, of course, are drawing on precious few hard facts about the man and then are interpolating them within historical context. So scholarship matters and underscores that the best of the books (Greenblatt and Shapiro) do, in truth, give us an accurate portrait of the man. Shakespeare: An Ungentle Life is as strong a bio as you can find, and I place it on my (very) short list of recommended titles. The author has a genuine understanding of Shakespeare's world and thankfully, has no axes to grind. Incidentally, her book on the Sonnets is the very best you can read.
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