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Shakespeare: The World as Stage

3.74 of 5 stars 3.74 · rating details · 11,218 ratings · 1,260 reviews

At first glance, Bill Bryson seems an odd choice to write this addition to the Eminent Lives series.

The author of 'The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid' isn't, after all, a Shakespeare scholar, a playwright, or even a biographer.

Reading 'Shakespeare The World As Stage', however, one gets the sense that this eclectic Iowan is exactly the type of person the Bard himse...more

Hardcover, Eminent Lives, 199 pages

Published November 1st 2007 by HarperCollinsPublishing (first published 2007)

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Jun 21, 2011 Shovelmonkey1 rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who want to read a book which will teach them nothing in a fun and informative way

Recommended to Shovelmonkey1 by: bookcrossers and the big general Bill Bryson fuzzy seal of approval

Shelves: 1001-books, bookcrossing-books, history, read-in-2010

Well, that was a quick and easy read, very pleasant too thank you Mr Bryson. After reading this book I have learned loads about Shakespeare - NOT! Having being forced to study him for A-Level English and worship at the alter of Shakespeare like a good student I was also suprised how little is known about him. My best memory of learning about Shakespeare was being asked to write an essay on the use of natural symbolism in "A Winters Tale". Being a slightly cocky and beligerent teenager I turned i...more

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Mar 13, 2008 Jason Pettus rated it 4 of 5 stars

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)

No matter where on the planet you're from, it seems that there is at least one figure from the early Renaissance period (1400-1600 AD) who's had a huge and profound impact on your society's culture ever since: here in the English-speaking world, for example, that would be playwright and poet William ...more (Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)

No matter where on the planet you're from, it seems that there is at least one figure from the early Renaissance period (1400-1600 AD) who's had a huge and profound impact on your society's culture ever since: here in the English-speaking world, for example, that would be playwright and poet William Shakespeare, and in fact it's guessed that a huge majority of all new novels and movies coming out in English these days are based or inspired in one way or another on something from "The Bard"s old works. But that's the ultimate irony about Shakespeare; that although he is one of the only Elizabethan playwrights in history to have almost all his works preserved and reproduced over the ages (a main factor behind him being as influential as he now is), hardly any facts about the man himself exist, and in fact apart from his creative writing you would scarcely even know he was a physical human who actually once lived. Over the centuries, then, it has led to wild speculation about Shakespeare's life on the part of thousands, and an entire wing of academic study about the man so in the center of all Western artistic thought.

So for those like me who hardly know anything about the subject, Bill Bryson's new book Shakespeare: The World as Stage is going to be a godsend; it is a tight, funny 200-page overview of what exactly we factually know about the man and what we don't, peppered with a lot of anecdotes about the various crackpots over the years who have gotten obsessed with the question. And in fact this is the entire reason for the book to exist in the first place, is to give a short and tidy overview of a famous person's life; it is in fact the latest installment of James Atlas' "Eminent Lives" series, where for years he's been asking intriguing writers in other fields to pen short accessible works about various famous thinkers in history. For example, for those who didn't know, Bryson himself is mostly known in the publishing world for extremely sharp, funny and bitter travelogues; and here he puts that style to good use, taking us from one interesting historical and academic site to the next, as he with us unravels the mystery of this playwright we know so little about.

In fact, that's about the only big drawback to this book as well, if you want to look at it that way; that a 200-page manuscript simply isn't enough to fully get into the mysteries behind Shakespeare and his work, and that the main enjoyment Bryson's book contains is with all the astounding trivia-style facts he rattles off throughout. (Did you know that there are only fourteen words in existence actually written in Shakespeare's hand? That of 3,000 plays written in the Elizabethan Era, we only have printed copies of 200 of them, with nearly 40 of them being from Shakespeare himself? That his collected work contains 884,647 words, 15,785 question marks, and 10 instances of the term "dunghill?") As far as I'm concerned, though, that's what's to like about this book, not dislike; it's no scholarly treatise by any means, but Bryson's Shakespeare is definitely a pleasant little unintimidating ladder into the endless underground cavern which is Shakespearean study. And given that other titles in this series deal with such other fascinating characters from history as Thomas Jefferson, Muhammad, and Machiavelli, I'm also looking forward to reading more.

Out of 10: 9.2(less)

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Jan 11, 2013 Tracey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Bill Bryson is an old friend. His approach to history makes the standard tome all the more flat and dull by comparison – Bryson knows his stuff well enough to not only present it to an audience but to play with it, to have fun with it, to make it fun. He genuinely loves his subjects, and it is infectious. He's like the teacher you always hoped to get – the brilliant, funny, cool one who (to use a real example) sat cross-legged on the table at the front of the room and told the most amazing stori...more

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Nov 20, 2007 Elizabeth rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2007, non-fiction, in-by-of-england, bio-memoir-diaries-letters, history, in-theater, reviewed

There's a saying that someone with a Liberal Arts education can speak well on many subjects, for about five minutes. Bill Bryson's Shakespeare was written for the liberal arts student in all of us. It's a very clever, and not poorly researched, analysis of what is known, and what is not, about William Shakespeare. And since it's Bryson, it's an egaging and easy read. No one else would note that many of the proponents of other people having written Shakespeare's plays were named Looney, Batty, an...more

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Apr 13, 2009 Martine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography, british, non-fiction

I love Bill Bryson. The man can take any subject and make it interesting, simply because he has this unfailing flair for adding details which make you grin. He does so to great effect in Shakespeare, his two-hundred-page biography of the man affectionately known as the Bard, which will delight Shakespeare aficionados as well as people who know virtually nothing about Stratford's most famous export product, such as myself.

Two hundred pages is not much for a biography of the world's greatest play...more I love Bill Bryson. The man can take any subject and make it interesting, simply because he has this unfailing flair for adding details which make you grin. He does so to great effect in Shakespeare, his two-hundred-page biography of the man affectionately known as the Bard, which will delight Shakespeare aficionados as well as people who know virtually nothing about Stratford's most famous export product, such as myself.

Two hundred pages is not much for a biography of the world's greatest playwright, but it's enough, because, as Bryson keeps reminding us, preciously little is known about Shakespeare. Bryson himself doesn't really add to the knowledge available on Shakespeare; he has no great discoveries up his sleeve. Basically, what he does is tell us what others have written about Shakespeare, only to tear their theories a new arsehole in a few short, memorable observations that will probably stay with you better than the theories themselves. It's an entertaining approach, which is particularly successful in the final chapter, where Bryson tackles several authors' attempts to prove that the works associated with Shakespeare were not actually written by Shakespeare. On top of pointing out fatal flaws in the various authors' reasoning (often in a single sentence), Bryson observes with great relish that three of the many, many people who have come up with outlandish theories on the authorship of Shakespeare's plays were called Silliman, Battey and Looney. I love details like that, which more serious scholars would be too polite to point out. Bryson takes them and runs with them, making this not just an informative, well-researched book, but a very entertaining one.

Shakespeare could have done with some more depth -- a little more information on the plays and their possible inspirations and interpretations. It could also have done with some thorough proof-reading. There are times, especially in the first half of the book, when Bryson loses himself in tangents on Queen Elizabeth and life in sixteenth-century England, some of which are just a tad too random and general for the subject. However, just when you find yourself wondering what all this information has to do with Shakespeare, Bryson gets back on track and comes up with some more interesting observations on the Bard and his times, plus some witty asides to make you forgive his rambling. As a result, the book is a bit uneven, but there is no denying it's a pleasant read on a rainy day, which will likely whet your appetite for some more serious Shakespeare scholarship. It definitely did that for me. Anyone got any recommendations?(less)

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Feb 11, 2011 Jeanette rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, nonfiction, biography-memoir

Shakespeare's biography is sketchy, and ever thus it shall remain. This little book represents Bill Bryson's attempt to collect what scant information exists, and to debunk a few spurious claims. I can't say I know much more about Sweet Will now than I did before reading the book, but Bryson is not to blame. People didn't reliably keep records 400 years ago. There were no standardized spellings for English words, so a lot of what was written down is indecipherable. Furthermore, no one anticipate...more Shakespeare's biography is sketchy, and ever thus it shall remain. This little book represents Bill Bryson's attempt to collect what scant information exists, and to debunk a few spurious claims. I can't say I know much more about Sweet Will now than I did before reading the book, but Bryson is not to blame. People didn't reliably keep records 400 years ago. There were no standardized spellings for English words, so a lot of what was written down is indecipherable. Furthermore, no one anticipated Shakespeare's enduring popularity, so they weren't clamoring to write his biography while he was still alive. In fact, "playwriting was not an esteemed profession, and its practice, however accomplished, gained one little critical respect."

It's a wonder Will's works survived at all. If not for the dedicated efforts of John Heminges and Henry Condell in compiling the First Folio, eighteen of Shakespeare's plays would probably have been lost to us. Imagine our world without Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, The Tempest, Antony and Cleopatra, and a dozen others. It's our good fortune that Heminges and Condell weren't procrastinators. Both men were dead by 1630, only seven years after the First Folio was published.

Bryson succeeds admirably in providing a context for Shakespeare's life and works. He describes what was happening in England throughout The Bard's lifetime, and how those events and attitudes might have shaped his choices and influenced his writing. For instance, the issue of Queen Elizabeth's succession was a national preoccupation for much of Shakespeare's life. It's no surprise, then, that one quarter of his plays deal with questions of royal succession.

Don't be put off by my three-star rating. I'm not enough of a snob to think of 3 stars as a "low" rating. It means "I liked it." Nothing more, nothing less. I've always found English history to be rather dry, but I'm glad I read the book. It will add a new layer of subtext to my future reading of Shakespeare's works. Just knowing that audience members were sometimes allowed to sit on the stage during a performance alters my perspective. How distracting that must have been for the actors! Imagine allowing that on Broadway.

My favorite chapter was the last one, entitled "Claimants," in which the author presents an array of stunningly ridiculous and insupportable claims regarding the authorship of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. Bryson gave free rein to his famous wit in this chapter. I found myself laughing hysterically at some of his observations. Regarding the popular claim that Christopher Marlowe wrote Shakespeare's works, Bryson dryly concedes that Marlowe "had the requisite talent, and would certainly have had ample leisure after 1593, assuming he wasn't too dead to work." (Italics mine.)

After handily dismissing all the myths for lack of evidence, Bryson concludes:
"Only one man had the circumstances and gifts to give us such incomparable works, and William Shakespeare of Stratford was unquestionably that man--whoever he was."

(less)

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Feb 17, 2008 Matt added it Recommends it for: a much broader audience than the AP Lit and Drama Club crowds

Recommended to Matt by: Valerie Marshall (gift)

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Fitting in with the Bryson M.O. of saying to himself, "Gee, I wonder about..." then following that question with a book, this is a biography about a man about whom, as Bryson reminds us at least once on every page, there is known almost nothing. Yet somehow there are a complete 100-something pages that move briskly and thoroughly.

The bio covers what little is factually known about Shakespeare's birth, life, and [spoiler] death. Bryson comes at his subject as a sort of curator, rifling through wh...more

3 likes · like · see review

Oct 02, 2012 Chandra rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography-memoir, non-fiction, shakespeare, 2012-reads, anglophilia, history, humor-satire

A truly good read! I liked this so much more than I was expecting. Knowing how little we actually know about the man I couldn't imagine how Bryson was going to pull this thing off. But, somehow, this is a truly engaging and informative read - perfect for the layman who is slightly more than casually interested in the life of Shakespeare. I felt it gave just the right about of information without being dull or pedantic. It isn't completely frothy either - although there is plenty of fun to be had...more

9 likes · like · see review

Oct 28, 2012 Megankellie rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: history nerds and anyone who wants to vividly imagine Elizabethan England

Recommended to Megankellie by: Heather

Shelves: educationalnerdoutmaterial, history, writingnerdout

Delightful. Just the kind of book that makes you want to google things and understand Elizabethan London in a day-to-day living kind of a way. Everyone loved to eat sugar. Sugar was expensive. Everyone had horrible, destroyed teeth, but if you couldn't afford the amount of sugar to wreck your mouth, you pretended and blackened your teeth. When you hit a certain social standing, you got to wear certain outfits, as in your bonus for the year was 3 yards of red cloth. Apparently Picadilly is relate...more

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Dec 27, 2007 Mazzeo rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone interested in learning about Shakespeare

This audio book focuses on the concrete facts known about the life and works of William Shakespeare starting in his life time and coming through to the present. Given the volume of work available on Shakespeare it surprised me that Bill Bryson, who until recently focused on personal experiences, in a memoir sort of way, would tackles the subject. It’s not a question of talent, but his work is interesting largely because of his views, reactions, and musings on the topic. Additionally, this is not...more

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Dec 12, 2007 Erin rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was interesting and informative. I knew very little about Shakespeare as a person other than what was presented in Shakespeare in Love which was very liberal in its interpretation of the facts. Bill Bryson presents a well researched, easily digestible little book but ultimately it proved somewhat frustrating because the main point that he makes is that there's really very little historical record of anything to do with Shakespeare. Almost everything we think we know about him (including wha...more

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Dec 04, 2007 Robin rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone curious about Shakespeare

I've always been a Shakespeare fan since I first saw Julius Caesar performed in my school cafeteria in 6th grade. Like a lot of people, I do rather wonder what the man himself was like -- and this book is a wonderful look at just why we'll likely never know. Bill Bryson is just as witty and readable as always -- the man does have a flair for making apparently difficult topics appealing to almost everyone, see A Short History of Nearly Everything. The great thing is that while there are hundreds...more

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Jan 12, 2009 Stephanie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction, favorites, biography

Bryson has always been one of my favorite writers, but here, wherein he turns his attention to a subject near and dear to my heart... just, wow. It's such a splendid book, marvelously written and well-researched. He focuses more on all that we do not know about Shakespeare, and how facts about him have been invented for centuries to fill in gaps. He also reflects on the Elizabethan and Jacobean societies and the role of Shakespeare's work within them. Loved it. Seriously. Adored. **Swoon**

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Oct 30, 2008 Guy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography

Most people not obsessed with Shakespeare, faced with the 16,000+ books about him that have already been written, would conclude that everything worthwhile that could be said has been. Not Bill Bryson... and lo and behold, he's right! Bryson's insight was to see that what was needed was a book that would cut away the forests of conjecture to reveal the little that we really know about Shakespeare... and why this is so.

Along the way he pokes fun at some of the more off-the-wall Shakespeare "exper...more

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May 06, 2010 Jocelyn rated it 4 of 5 stars

As usual, Bill Bryson tells a great story even though he isn't making it up. Consistently funny. I love the way he uses adverbs and adjectives. The thing about this book is that he hasn't actually got much to say about Shakespeare, because so little is known about him. Bryson spends a lot of time discussing Shakespeare's contemporaries, and Elizabethan/Jacobean theater, and what we don't know, and wild scholarly theories with absolutely no real evidence to back them up. But even though a lot of...more

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Apr 16, 2008 Lynne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Let me start out...I am not a fan of Shakespeare (or Shakspere, Shaxspier, Shkspr - see book), never was. Yet this book was great, delving into the mystery of his life. I had no idea just how little we know of him and how scholars spend their whole careers in pure conjecture about him. This is a well written, fascinating book and even made me just a little curious to go out and read Shakespeare...ok well maybe not that curious. Anyway, I recommend it to anyone who likes a little mystery mixed wi...more

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Dec 12, 2007 Jenny rated it 4 of 5 stars

Two of my favorite things: Bryson and Shakespeare! Together! And they don't disappoint! Bryson is just witty and clever enough to spice up what is otherwise merely a thorough debunking of the classic Shakespearean biography. Truth is, we know almost nothing about The Bard's real life, and Bryson chronicles this non-knowledge for just under two hundred fairly entertaining pages. A quick read, but a worthy one. (It must be said: not knowing much about the man who wrote Shakespeare's plays does not...more

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May 31, 2012 Bobbi rated it 3 of 5 stars

Bryson isn't quite as humorous as usual in this more factual book about William Shakespeare, but it was still enjoyable. He looks at all the available facts about Shakespeare's life, and discusses the many theories and myths surrounding the brilliant and enigmatic playwright.

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Jan 05, 2009 Huckleberry Bluedog rated it 3 of 5 stars

It's almost annoying how well Bryson writes...he feels effortless to read in the same way as Julian Barnes or Hemingway. It's a joy but the annoyance comes in the delusion that I should be able to do something that seems so simple.

Though disappointingly short, this is an excellent read and was the perfect companion for a cold post-Christmas Sunday afternoon. Bryson is honest throughout about the lack of information that exists about Shakespeare, and much of the book tells of the delightful madn...more

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Apr 24, 2013 Bjorn rated it 4 of 5 stars

There's not a lot we know about one of the greatest writers of all time. So little, in fact, that people for the last 200 years have been speculating that maybe he didn't even write the works he's credited with.

Bryson dismisses all such claims in one of the funniest chapters of the book - noting that three of the leading "anti-Stratfordians" are named Looney, Silliman, and Battey - and instead focuses on presenting what we do know about Shakespeare, what we can reasonably assume about him, and h...more

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Feb 25, 2013 Tony rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction-general

SHAKESPEARE: The World as Stage. (2007). Bill Bryson. ****.
This book was written to be part of the Eminent Lives Series, published by Atlas Books, a division of Harper Collins. Bryson takes a no nonsense approach to his subject. He makes no claims about Shakespeare that can’t be substantiated by hard facts. When you get right down to it, there are few facts to base claims on – at least claims dealing with Shakespeare’s life. He can make quite a story, however, about his works, and proceeds to d...more

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Feb 01, 2013 Johnbarefield rated it 4 of 5 stars

This compact volume really delivered. I enjoyed this believable account of the life and times of the great dramatist, written in a personable style after in-depth research. I really appreciated Bryson's "just the facts" attitude towards this oh-so-heavily-covered subject. As he points out, many details about Shakespeare's life have been lost in the mists of time. This book clearly spelled out:

1. What we really know about the Bard.

2. What we definitely don't know about him, and probably never wil...more

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Jan 16, 2013 Norton Stone rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A simple distilled account of everything we know about William Shakespeare, (which is not a lot!). The book covers all the ground without getting bogged in speculation or fabrication. The most compelling evidence that the man existed is the court records of Queen Elizabeth and King James who saw his plays performed, King James on at least 187 occasions, we presume with Shakespeare acting in many performances, though that like every other shred of evidence has to be assumed. It is such a short bo...more

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Nov 17, 2012 Alexander Arsov rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Bill Bryson

Shakespeare:
The World as a Stage

Harper Perennial, Paperback, [2008].
8vo. 200 pp.

First published, 2007.

Contents

Chapter One: In Search of William Shakespeare
Chapter Two: The Early Years, 1564-1585
Chapter Three: The Lost Years, 1585-1592
Chapter Four: In London
Chapter Five: The Plays
Chapter Six: Years of Fame, 1596-1603
Chapter Seven: The Reign of King James, 1603-1616
Chapter Eight: Death
Chapter Nine: Claimants

Acknowledgments
Select Bibliography

============================================...more

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Nov 04, 2012 Brian T rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is assuredly NOT my favorite book by this author, but it was sitting on my Mother-In-Law's bookshelf and I had some time to kill so I picked it up... Read it one day...

The most fundamental point I took away from this book is that it is nearly impossible to write a biography of Shakespeare. So little is actually known about him. There are only 3 artistic renditions of him in existence and it could be argued that 2 of the 3 may not even be him. He had something like 43 different ways that he...more

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Aug 24, 2012 Zane rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Dads, hundreds of dads.

Recommended to Zane by: R. Cepuch

I keep on picking up Bill Bryson's books (I have a finished but currently ungoodreaded copy of 'At Home' somewhere on my desk) under the assumption that, if I just read a few more of them, I'll finally just turn into Bryson, probably by some sort of mystical literary osmosis. [Minus the somewhat, uh, 'ill-advised' shield-goatee present in his author photo.] If you're not familiar with him, Bryson is one of those rare, semi-canonical figures who can do things like write an 900-page book about the...more

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May 03, 2012 Cheryl Gatling added it

Why? Why read another book about Shakespeare, when what little we know is already known? Why, because it's Bill Bryson, of course, an author who can make any subject entertaining. And I'm not the only person who must think so, because Bill Bryson's name appears above the title on the cover, and in far larger type than that of Shakespeare. Quite an accomplishment, to get higher billing than the man generally regarded as the greatest writer in the English language. As the facts about Shakespeare's...more

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Apr 22, 2012 Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick rated it 5 of 5 stars

Loved this. It was funny and full of quirky information, just as you'd expect. I got some sense of Shakespeare as a human being living in his own rather dangerous and disease-ridden time rather than the revered genius seen backwards through an historic lens. As Bryson points out, we really don't have much by way of facts to go on with Shakespeare yet we have built up an idea of him which has more to do with the esteem in which his work is held and, perhaps, the mind-set of those most likely to p...more

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Apr 16, 2012 Rebecca rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

There is very little actual documentation about Shakespeare's life, and Bryson is determined not to commit the sin that so many biographers do of speculating beyond that documentation. Of course he does, but he makes a valiant attempt to stick to the facts. Because so little is known about Shakespeare, Bryson fills in with a basic history of life during the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, and circumstances that might have affected Shakespeare. He also presents a chapter on the debate over whether...more

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Apr 06, 2012 Nikki rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, history

Refreshingly honest, Bryson admits that he has nothing new to say about Shakespeare from the very outset, and in fact spends most of the book demolishing some of the generally accepted facts about Shakespeare, pointing out the lack of evidence. It's useful for a casual reader and the casual interest in Shakespeare, but obviously you'd want to go elsewhere if you have an academic interest in it. It serves as an excellent rundown of what we do know about the Bard, though.

He writes clearly and ofte...more

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About Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1951. He settled in England in 1977, and worked in journalism until he became a full time writer. He lived for many years with his English wife and four children in North Yorkshire. He and his family then moved to New Hampshire in America for a few years, but they have now returned to live in the UK.
In The Lost Continent, Bill Bryson's hilarious first t...more

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“A third...candidate for Shakespearean authorship was Christopher Marlowe. He was the right age (just two months older than Shakespeare), had the requisite talent, and would certainly have had ample leisure after 1593, assuming he wasn't too dead to work.” — 12 people liked it

“Only one man had the circumstances and gifts to give us such incomparable works, and William Shakespeare of Stratfrod was unquestionably that man -- whoever he was.” — 3 people liked it

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