false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255868794m/135611.jpg 135611 17 William Shakespeare, the most celebrated poet in the English language, left behind nearly a million words of text, but his biography has long been a thicket of wild supposition arranged around scant facts. With a steady hand and his trademark wit, Bill Bryson sorts through this colorful muddle to reveal the man himself. <br> <br> Bryson documents the efforts of earlier scholars, from today's most respected academics to eccentrics like Delia Bacon, an American who developed a firm but unsubstantiated conviction that her namesake, Francis Bacon, was the true author of Shakespeare's plays. Emulating the style of his famous travelogues, Bryson records episodes in his research, including a visit to a bunkerlike room in Washington, D.C., where the world's largest collection of First Folios is housed. <br> <br> Bryson celebrates Shakespeare as a writer of unimaginable talent and enormous inventiveness, a coiner of phrases ("vanish into thin air," "foregone conclusion," "one fell swoop") that even today have common currency. His Shakespeare is like no one else's&#8212;the beneficiary of Bryson's genial nature, his engaging skepticism, and a gift for storytelling unrivaled in our time. 892448 1 11 2007 Shakespeare: The World As Stage (Eminent Lives) total:2035|5:10|4:49|3:39|2:6|1:3| 2035 7504 3213 530 4 6 false false Sat Apr 19 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 16 13:49:26 -0700 2008 Sat Apr 19 21:57:06 -0700 2008
Bryson uses lots of ink to tell the reader what Shakes...more...]]> 4 6 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Mar 13 08:16:19 -0700 2008 Thu Mar 13 08:18:33 -0700 2008
No matter where on the planet you're from, it seems that there is at least one figure fro...more...]]> 3 3 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Nov 20 13:36:47 -0800 2007 Tue Nov 20 13:37:03 -0800 2007 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...more...]]> 4 4 false false Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 13 04:21:29 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 13 04:22:50 -0700 2009 Shakespeare, his two-hundred-page biography of the man affectionately known as the Bard, which will delight Shake...more...]]> 0 2 true true Fri Feb 08 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 30 12:05:08 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 17 18:12:03 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu Dec 27 14:37:03 -0800 2007 Thu Dec 27 14:37:37 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 1 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Dec 12 19:28:49 -0800 2007 Wed Dec 12 19:37:23 -0800 2007 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 some...more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Tue Dec 04 14:45:35 -0800 2007 Tue Dec 04 14:50:57 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Jan 12 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 08 16:34:41 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 12 20:35:16 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Oct 29 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Oct 30 04:19:37 -0700 2008 Thu Oct 30 04:37:34 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 16 20:56:33 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 16 21:03:48 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Dec 12 13:48:33 -0800 2007 Sat Dec 08 03:57:31 -0800 2007 Wed Dec 12 13:46:51 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Jan 04 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 05 23:27:16 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 05 23:36:29 -0800 2009
Though disappointingly short, this is an excellent read ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Nov 18 05:14:10 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 18 05:39:28 -0800 2009 (2) For reasons other than entertainment, what do you believe was the author’s purpose in writing? Why did they write this book? I believe that Mr. Bryson wrote this book b...more...]]> 0 0 false false Sun Nov 15 09:59:15 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 15 10:00:46 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Sep 08 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 08 06:14:42 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 08 06:39:15 -0700 2009
A long time ago I worked through a lot of Shakespeare in graduate school, but it's been a long time ago. Bryson tells it all as if ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jul 19 11:35:58 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 19 11:36:27 -0700 2009
William Shakespeare, of course, was a great playwright, whether of comedy or tragedy, and a fine poet as well. Bill Bryson, the author of this slende...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Jun 27 10:14:52 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 27 10:34:15 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Jun 08 07:03:31 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 08 07:03:45 -0700 2009
The...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Sep 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 29 23:03:21 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 01 06:29:24 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=135611