false 28594080 29327 135611 0060740221 9780060740221 480 http://www.goodreads.com/images/books/13/611/135611-m-1255868794.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/books/13/611/135611-s-1255868794.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/135611.Shakespeare_The_World_As_Stage 3.68 1897
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.

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—the beneficiary of Bryson's genial nature, his engaging skepticism, and a gift for storytelling unrivaled in our time.]]> 7 3.91 80812 11614 2007 3 0 false Tue Jul 29 05:08:04 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 29 05:08:04 -0700 2008