Mistress Shakespeare

Mistress Shakespeare

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3.64 of 5 stars 3.64  ·  rating details  ·  1,009 ratings  ·  166 reviews
A delicious and intriguing historical novel about the woman who was William Shakespeare's secret wife by New York Times bestselling author, Karen Harper.

In Mistress Shakespeare, Elizabethan beauty Anne Whateley reveals intimate details of her dangerous, daring life and her great love, William Shakespeare. As historical records show, Anne Whateley of Temple Grafton is betr...more
Hardcover, 366 pages
Published February 5th 2009 by Putnam Adult
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Annie
I have to admire the courage it took for Karen Harper to take something as small as a discrepancy on William Shakespeare's marriage certificate and create an entire novel from it. Although the idea that Shakespeare had a mistress is not a new one, it is a fantastic literary premise sure to draw attention and potentially, criticism.

There are plenty of areas in which this novel does deliver and can be commended. First of all would be the clever way Harper weaves lines of Shakespeare's sonnets and...more
Leya
I loved the story! I'm amazed that I enjoyed it so much, who would have thought....Let me explain, I enjoy Shakespeare as much as the next person, but during a class I took at University I had to dwell into his history, which there's isn't much, his life and works don't mesh together and there's a lot of historians that believe that Shakespeare the author was a completely different person. And let me say I do not know enough to have an opinion.

But that's the beauty of fiction, and this one real...more
Anni
“Mistress Shakespeare” by Karen Harper. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2009.
Call Number: HARPER

Keeping in mind that this is historical fiction, it is commendable the way the author, Karen Harper, took a supposed discrepancy on William Shakespeare’s marriage certificate and created an entire story from it. Although there is some, but little, evidence to support the claim that Shakespeare had a second wife, it is clear that Harper did her research. She supplies details of Elizabethan England to portray what...more
Deirdre
I thoroughly enjoyed this retelling of the story of Shakespeare in love, though I'm not sure what (if any) historical truths the novel actually contains. I have always been fascinated, though, by the mysteries surrounding much of Shakespeare's life -- though his writing is so widely studied and appreciated, details of his life story are murky and patchy at best.

Harper's book is primarily a love story, chronicling the lifelong see-saw of feelings between Anne Whately and Will Shakespeare. Anne is...more
Alexandria
I enjoyed this novel about a possilble other love of William Shakespeare. It was interesting to have theorized the way William Shakespeare's plays come about, with Anne Whateley being his muse, inspiration and means of his poems and plays getting to the public. I liked how the author wove in lines from the plays. The descriptions of the plague and daily life and the intrigues of Elizabeth's reign were eyeopening and quiet intersting. The desciption of Maud's death of the black death are heartren...more
Joanna Handy
A pretty good book, it was a clever way of engaging the reader with the era and the subject of Shakespeare. It is of course a work of fiction and previous reviewers of this book have often complained about using a mistress that there are only small amounts of evidence for. However, I didn't feel this detracts from enjoying the book if you remember it is only historical fiction.
The author does a great job of placing the reader in the era and there is a great set of characters in the book to keep...more
Gerald Sinstadt
Karen Harper is at pains to establish her credentials. In this book and in interviews she refers to having built up "quite a Tudor library", to having made numerous trips to the British Isles, bringing back "many booklets, pamphlets and photos" of places visited. Anyone who reads Shakespeare's Mistress will not quarrel with her self-description as a "Tudormaniac."

The problem with this book, which is based upon some evidence that Shakespeare married twice, is that it overlays serious historical f...more
Kim
As always, Karen Harper takes on a subject that while seeming small or inconsequential, has the potential to be larger than life. Sometimes, she nails her subject, as she did in her novel The Last Boleyn, but in the case of Mistress Shakespeare, I did not quite catch the same spark, the same magic that I did in her other novel.

(view spoiler)[While it was interesting that Harper managed to weave many of Shakespeare's plays and poems and sonnets into the story, showing how the heroine of the novel...more
LeAnn
I enjoyed this "what-if" drawn from a single line in a legal register from 1582 that had Shakespeare applying for a marriage bond to a woman named Anne Whately the day before he applied for one for Anne Hathaway, who was pregnant. Harper, assuming that the first Anne was no mistake and was a love match, imagines what might have happened if Shakespeare had two wives.

Having recently read Peter Ackroyd's biography of Shakespeare, I recognized many of the details known about his life and milieu as...more
Abby Lyn
I am a sucker for beautiful paperback covers, and I am not too proud to admit that that is why I snatched this up at Barnes and Noble. But this book was worthy of the cover - it is a lovely Elizabethan tale about a woman that history's most famous poet might have loved. The author takes an interesting tidbit of history - the fact that historical records indicate that Shakespeare was engaged to another woman named Anne, before marrying his pregnant legal wife, Anne Hathaway - and from that spins...more
Sarah Beth
I love historical fiction but I do get tired of the same historical figures' stories being rehashed time and again. So Mistress Shakespeare was refreshing in that in its change in scenery and characters. Harper's novel is based on the discrepancy in the the town records that list William Shakespeare as marrying an Anne Whateley the day before he is listed as marrying an Anne Hathaway. Harper extrapolates that Shakespeare was in love with the first Anne who he secretly married, before being force...more
Denise
(quote from book jacket): "As historical records show, Anne Whateley of Temple Grafton was betrothed to William Shakespeare just days before he was forced to wed the pregnant Anne Hathaway of Shottery."

Their wedding had been done in secret but it was doomed. Two powerful families exerted pressure on Shakespeare to marry the woman who was to bear his child, even though he loved another woman. Though Anne Whateley was his first and true wife, she must bow to social convention and step aside. They'...more
Cheryl
Just okay. I was really looking forward to this because like most, the whole back story of: "Was there really another Anne?" "Who was she?" "What happened to her?" was pretty fascinating. I knew going in that this was a novel, not non-fiction, but to me, this read more like a teen love story. Even the language in "Shakespeare In Love" was more complex than this. The character of William Shakespeare just seemed so ... simple-minded, which then had my mind wandering to the notion that if he was re...more
Leslie
There are three big mysteries pertaining to William Shakespeare: Did he really write all those plays and sonnets, what happened to him during the lost years between grammar school and acting on the stage in London, and lastly whom did he marry? It is generally thought he married (very quickly because she was with child) Anne Hathaway of Stratford, but in the same official record where this marriage is recorded there is another made just days before with the name William Shakespeare and a woman n...more
Ape
Lordy, so many feelings in this book. So much emotion! So much like a stuck record. But I felt that I had to get to the end of the damn thing for some reason so I struggled through. I guess this is a kind of fan fiction, as the writer is obviously obsessed with Shakespeare and "name-drops" play titles and quotes all the way through the book. Maybe if you're equally as obsessed, you'll enjoy this what-if-there-was-another-wife- fictional version of history... it's fluffy, sometimes I don't mind a...more
Laura Linehan
This is quite possibly one of the worst books I have ever started to read. The author clearly thinks that her audience has no grasp of the period key people or events of the reign of Elizabeth I.

Here's the thing if you choose to read Historical Fiction for a certain period there is an extremely high chance that the reader will have an interest in there period. In my case an undergrad thesis. I found the tone patronizing. Key figures over explained and if you need to explain what a summer progre...more
CookieDemon
Published as 'Shakespeare's Mistress' in the UK.

I had such high hopes for this novel. It’s a book that I’ve really wanted to read given that I am interested in both Shakespeare and Elizabethan times. That’s why it pains me to say that to be honest, it was a bit of a let down and a story that I struggled to finish.

I do commend the author for writing this novel and weaving a believable scenario out of something that has long been pure speculation: the notion that prior to his marriage to Anne Hat...more
Jennifer W
This book was both a little too much like the movie "Shakespeare in Love" and a little too dissimilar for me. That probably doesn't make much sense, but it's true. I've seen the movie many times, and while I take it at its face value, there were times in the book where I knew what was going to happen. On the other hand, there were times where the book didn't follow the movie, and that annoyed me just as much. I found myself more interested in the wider view of the ongoing political turmoil, rath...more
Sharon
This story is historical fiction. It is based upon the possibility that there may have been another "Anne" who married Shakespeare the day before he married Anne Hathaway. An Anne Whateley is listed as marrying him the day before. This is a love story in the vein of Romeo and Juliet, where Anne Whately can't tell the family they were secretly married by a priest first. When she learns that he has also married another Anne, who he was courting, and that she is pregnant with William's child, she i...more
Rebecca
I bought this book on a whim when I was in Barnes & Noble. I am really glad I did. It was a great read. It was a passionate love story without being sickeningly sweet. Karen Harper did a great job with the development of her main character. She also did a fantastic job of developing a story for the background of William Shakespeare and his literary works. Harper took a few known facts and Shakespeare's own words to create an entire life story and background for how he became the well-known p...more
Jessica Smith
I listened to the first half on audio book and just recently finished reading the second half. The story of Anne Whately as the mistress of William Shakespeare- The beginning of the book was great, but by the middle and end I just felt like it went back and forth too many times between them fighting and making up, fighting and making up. I don't think I could have made it through by reading the whole book (listening has it's advantages). I enjoyed how the author entwined actual Shakespeare sonne...more
Breeana Shill
My naive self assumed this was about MRS. Shakespeare... but no, it's about his WHORE of a woman he had an affair with for a lot of his life (if not all of it... I didn't read to the end to find out). I obviously didn't pay very much attention to the title: "MISTRESS Shakespeare", whoops.

I have no desire to read about love affairs, adultery, or flandering men and women. This book should be rated 'R', which is another reason I stopped reading it.

I do not recommend this book to anyone but would r...more
Alex
I loved this book. I've read two of Ms. Harper's books now, and I have loved them both. I am anxious to get my hands on some more of her writing!

This story is about the possibility of another Anne in William Shakespeare's life. As the story goes, Will married Anne Hathaway when they discovered she was pregnant. But, on the very day before, official records tell us that he was granted a marriage license with Anne Whateley. Historians now believe someone just mistook Hathaway for Whateley, but the...more
Patricia Bracewell
I liked the concept of this book, although it was just a touch too romantic for me. It reminded me a little of the film "Shakespeare in Love", but it is more from the woman's point of view.

Harper has done her homework regarding the history. I wish, though, that I could have gotten more emotionally involved in the book. Part of the problem is me. I've invented my own William Shakespeare -- we each do that, I think, drawing our own conclusions about this man from reading his plays. Harper's Shakes...more
Jena Gardner
Very entertaining. The author asks the question...what if the supposed clerical error of a marriage license reading "Anne Whately of Temple Grafton" rather than "Anne Hathway of Stratford" is actually the only shred of evidence of a lifelong relationship between Will Shakespeare and his true muse and "handfast" London wife? Very engaging. There is so little hard evidence of Shakespeare's real life...why not interpret the few facts to make a dramatic story? I enjoyed it and appreciated the author...more
Susan
I've always thought of William Shakespeare as just a playwright and a poet, so it was interesting to see him as a person instead. I liked the premise of the book, but found the last part dragged a bit. Perhaps it was my impatience. I frequently get impatient with a book when I am nearing the end. One factual error really bothered me. Will and Anne go to Westminster Abbey to see the burial site of Elizabeth I in the Henry VIII Chapel. It's the Henry VII Chapel. Henry VII and his wife Elizabeth of...more
Jody
I did enjoy this historical fiction novel. The premise of the story revolves around Shakespeare's mistress, who is actually his first wife. He married another the day after, upon learning that she was pregnant. She eventually has three children total and his mistress continues to hang on. It is written during the Elizabethan era. There are numerous quotes from his plays and sonnets, which I was happy to read. It makes me want to go back and tackle some of those plays I could not "get" while in h...more
Leslie
Once I really got started with this one, I could not put it down. (I forgot to take it on a long road trip and was filled with RAAAGE that I would have to wait to finish it. True story.) I knew that there were many mysteries surrounding the life of William Shakespeare, but I had never heard of Anne Whateley or the theory that Shakespeare was married to both her and Anne Hathaway. The way Harper imagines the story to have played out is intriguing and at times very sad. This book made me want to r...more
Amanda
I got invested in the characters, though I did have a sort of a "the Titanic is going to sink, isn't it?" moment; I really wanted the main characters to end up together, but since scholars have been debating since he was alive whether Shakespeare had a mistress or not...

To give credit to the author: she took a semi-historical character that it should have been hard to be sympathetic with - the "other woman" - and made her a very likeable heroine. She also made me want to re-read his plays. Much...more
Ellene
Wanted to love this book as I love Shakespeare and Elizabethian times. And historical fiction usually intrigues me. i.e., Even if the writing is not the best, I'll still usually finish a historical fiction novel because I want to know how the author envisioned this "filling in" of the blanks or alternate universe. However, other than a few gems of insight every so often, I couldn't get into this particular story, even though the premise is one I usually love, and ended up putting it down in favo...more
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Mistress Shakespeare (Paperback)
Shakespeare's Mistress  (Paperback)
Mistress Shakespeare (Hardcover)
Mistress Shakespeare (Audio CD)
Mistress Shakespeare (Kindle Edition)

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A New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Karen Harper is a former college English instructor (The Ohio State University) and high school literature and writing teacher. A lifelong Ohioan, Karen and her husband Don divide their time between the midwest and the southeast, both locations she has used in her books. Besides her American settings, Karen loves the British Isles, where her Scott...more
More about Karen Harper...
The Last Boleyn The Queen's Governess The First Princess of Wales The Poyson Garden (Elizabeth I Mysteries, #1) The Irish Princess

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