
Will in the World
How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.00 for first 30 days
Buy for $21.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Peter Jay Fernandez
It is impossible to have any understanding of literature and not be familiar with William Shakepeare. He has influenced Western culture more than any other author. But how were Shakespeare's remarkable accomplishments even possible? How could a man without wealth, connections, or a university education move to London and quickly become the greatest playwright of all time? In this emerging narrative, Elizabethan England is reawakened, and we at last understand how Shakespeare became a legendary figure.
Don't miss Stephen Greenblatt talking about his book at the 2005 New York Times TimesTalk event, The Enigma of Shakespeare.©2004 Stephen Greenblatt (P)2004 Recorded Books, LLCListeners also enjoyed...




















Critic reviews
"This wonderful study, built on a lifetime's scholarship and a profound ability to perceive the life within the texts, creates as vivid and full portrait of Shakespeare as we are likely ever to have." (Publishers Weekly)
People who viewed this also viewed...


















One of the Best Biographies of the Bard
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
So insightful!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
worth listening to
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This may be may favorite book on Shakespeare. This book covers how young Shakespeare became the Barb. The detail is amazing and the narration is outstanding.
Just as good the third time
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Research, fluency and insight
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Absolutely wonderful!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Interesting conjectures
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Greenblatt gives gobs of space to poorly-documented and (sometimes totally) speculative aspects of Shakespeare's life. For example, many pages are given over to an imaginary late-night "bull session" between the young Shakespeare and a Catholic priest in Lancashire. The speculation is entertaining, but it's based on little more than a similarity in names: there was a William Shakeshaft in Lancashire at the time. Could Shakeshaft have been the young Shakespeare? Maybe, but he's more likely to be a relative of one of the many Shakeshafts who were also living in Lancashire.
Similarly, we're treated to many pages describing Shakespeare's supposedly awful marriage (pure speculation) and his close personal (and possibly sexual) relationship with the Earl of Southampton (even more speculative, this time without even a second-best bed as justification).
The problem is that these fantasias come at the expense of some aspects of Shakespeare's life for which there is substantially more documentation. As the most glaring example, consider Shakespeare's involvement with the Mountjoy family in the early 1600s: there are pages and pages of depositions, one of them from Shakespeare himself, others from people quoting Shakespeare's conversation. Charles Nicholl wrote a whole book on the subject ("The Lodger," available elsewhere on Audible). Greenblatt never even mentions it.
There's a lack of balance here. You want to speculate? Fine. But don't do it at the expense of well-grounded, contextualized, basic facts about your subject's daily life.
Flawed biography
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Outstanding book-on-tape
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Really?
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.