Soul of the Age: The Life, Mind and World of William Shakespeare [Hardcover]

A stunning tour de force. If you want to get as close as it is possible to get to Shakespeare the man, through his work, then read this book. Completely fresh and full of surprises. (David Crystal )

Bate's terrific introduction, simply and effectively summarising everything about Shakespeare, man and work, is alone worth buying the edition for (On The Rsc Shakespeare: Complete Works Daily Express )

Vivid and gripping ... A marvelous achievement (John Carey, On John Clare Sunday Times )

Deserves to become the most influential work of literary criticism of our time (On Song Of The Earth Sunday Times )

In this stunning new biography, Jonathan Bate weaves an exhilarating tapestry of the Elizabethan beliefs and obsessions, private passions and political intrigues that shaped and informed Shakespeare's mind. In the midst of this extraordinary, colourful and often violent world, he traces Shakespeare's various incarnations: precocious grammar-school boy, thoughtful young lover, canny businessman, social climber, caring father. Gradually, Shakespeare emerges in a portrait that is vivid, nuanced and completely fresh: a man who was both timelessly talented and, in the words of his friend and rival Ben Jonson, the very soul of the Elizabethan age.

Jonathan Bate is well known as a biographer, critic and broadcaster. Professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature at the University of Warwick, he is chief editor of The RSC Shakespeare: Complete Works and the author of many books, including most recently John Clare: A Biography, which won Britain's two oldest literary awards, The Hawthornden Prize for Literature and the James Tait Black Prize for Biography. A fellow of the British Academy, he was awared a CBE in 2006.