What do you think?
Rate this book
The Life and Times of William Shakespeare
Shipped from UK, please allow 10 to 21 business days for arrival. The Life and Times of William Shakespeare, paperback, 1st Edition. xxiii,392pp. Several plates. Very good, appears unopened and unread, clean tight sound square, no bookplate, inscriptions or marks of any kind. In pictorial paperback.
Paperback
First published October 1, 1989
3 people are currently reading
67 people want to read
About the author
Peter Levi
106 books9 followersPeter Chad Tigar Levi, FSA, FRSL, Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford (1984–1989) was a poet, archaeologist, sometime Jesuit priest, travel writer, biographer, academic and prolific reviewer and critic.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 21, 2012
I just don't know how I feel about Levi's tome, a vastly under-reviewed but clearly vital piece of Shakespearean scholarship.
In painstaking detail, Levi sorts through countless aspects of Shakespeare's life, sources, lifestyle, theatrical notions, as well as the legends and rumours surrounding the Bard. Moreso than some of the great Shakespearean biographers of our day - such as James Shapiro - Levi is sometimes tempted more by hearsay and tradition. On the other hand, he believes very much that a lot of the story of Shakespeare can be told or inferred from what was happening in the era. On this ground, he is brilliant. Sorting through so much information, Levi pulls together convincing discussions of everything from Shakespeare's family background to his final years, drawing a lot of inferences, but also connecting all of the extant elements of the Bard's life into one cohesive whole. This is clearly a labour of love, and it shows.
There are some flaws, however. Number one being that the book was clearly either self-published or by a smaller company, as it hasn't been proofread all that well. Levi was a poetry professor, and one gets the verbal style of an orator who needs an editor. Combine this with his off-handed references to political or religious history which are oblique enough that they could only be fully grasped by people of his age, class, and religious background, and there's a feeling that Levi's intended audience is a small one. (This is most notable in the early chapters on English history, where he will sometimes draw comparisons to points of the aristocracy or religion that have no baseline reference for a 25-year-old Australian like myself!) Beyond this, the sheer ambition of Levi's scope is sometimes overwhelming. This is part-biography, part-hypothesis, part-history, part-literary analysis, and (as many commentators have pointed out) part-epic poem. Sometimes, the book fills full-to-bursting with dense information. It doesn't help that - as I mentioned - sometimes I felt like an outsider, even though I consider myself a bit of an armchair Shakespeare scholar.
In short, this book is not for beginners. Unlike some of the better 'popular non-fiction' titles on the Bard, Levi's work is for people who consider themselves reasonably adept in Shakespeare's accepted history, in a solid number of his works, and preferably in a bit of English history of the time. Once you have brushed up on that, the complexities of Levi are worth a visit.
As for the religious element, well it's there. Levi talks in the introduction about his own religious affiliations, and they add to the occasional confusing moments of commentary - confusing, that is, to someone not of his time and place. Still, when he begins disclosing his fascinating amount of knowledge about Shakespeare's era, his experience shines through. And Levi himself clearly has the mentality of a poet, as his literary analyses are - even if you don't always agree - truly absorbing.
I firmly believe that failing ambitiously is better than succeeding with mediocrity. In Levi's case, he hasn't failed - he's just over-egged the pudding somewhat. This is a multi-faceted book: slow reading but worthy, poetic, sometimes fantastical but sometimes deeply pragmatic. One of the great trends of modern Shakespearean scholarship is to accept that there is much we will never know about William Shakespeare (as there is much we can never know of any genius, let alone one who lived in an era where few personal records remain), but we can make some reasonable assumptions. There were parts of Shakespeare's mind that would have been inaccessible even to those closest to him. There were parts of his life which are lost due to carelessness, a lack of foresight, and simply the verisimilitudes of the era. But beyond that, Shakespeare was a man, a jobbing writer, and a product of his time. In that regard, we can look to the world around him, to the idiosyncrasies of the specific theatre companies he wrote for, and the monarchs, commoners, and systems he was part of. We may not find all the answers there but, if we can believe Levi and his cohort, we can at least hazard a guess.
In painstaking detail, Levi sorts through countless aspects of Shakespeare's life, sources, lifestyle, theatrical notions, as well as the legends and rumours surrounding the Bard. Moreso than some of the great Shakespearean biographers of our day - such as James Shapiro - Levi is sometimes tempted more by hearsay and tradition. On the other hand, he believes very much that a lot of the story of Shakespeare can be told or inferred from what was happening in the era. On this ground, he is brilliant. Sorting through so much information, Levi pulls together convincing discussions of everything from Shakespeare's family background to his final years, drawing a lot of inferences, but also connecting all of the extant elements of the Bard's life into one cohesive whole. This is clearly a labour of love, and it shows.
There are some flaws, however. Number one being that the book was clearly either self-published or by a smaller company, as it hasn't been proofread all that well. Levi was a poetry professor, and one gets the verbal style of an orator who needs an editor. Combine this with his off-handed references to political or religious history which are oblique enough that they could only be fully grasped by people of his age, class, and religious background, and there's a feeling that Levi's intended audience is a small one. (This is most notable in the early chapters on English history, where he will sometimes draw comparisons to points of the aristocracy or religion that have no baseline reference for a 25-year-old Australian like myself!) Beyond this, the sheer ambition of Levi's scope is sometimes overwhelming. This is part-biography, part-hypothesis, part-history, part-literary analysis, and (as many commentators have pointed out) part-epic poem. Sometimes, the book fills full-to-bursting with dense information. It doesn't help that - as I mentioned - sometimes I felt like an outsider, even though I consider myself a bit of an armchair Shakespeare scholar.
In short, this book is not for beginners. Unlike some of the better 'popular non-fiction' titles on the Bard, Levi's work is for people who consider themselves reasonably adept in Shakespeare's accepted history, in a solid number of his works, and preferably in a bit of English history of the time. Once you have brushed up on that, the complexities of Levi are worth a visit.
As for the religious element, well it's there. Levi talks in the introduction about his own religious affiliations, and they add to the occasional confusing moments of commentary - confusing, that is, to someone not of his time and place. Still, when he begins disclosing his fascinating amount of knowledge about Shakespeare's era, his experience shines through. And Levi himself clearly has the mentality of a poet, as his literary analyses are - even if you don't always agree - truly absorbing.
I firmly believe that failing ambitiously is better than succeeding with mediocrity. In Levi's case, he hasn't failed - he's just over-egged the pudding somewhat. This is a multi-faceted book: slow reading but worthy, poetic, sometimes fantastical but sometimes deeply pragmatic. One of the great trends of modern Shakespearean scholarship is to accept that there is much we will never know about William Shakespeare (as there is much we can never know of any genius, let alone one who lived in an era where few personal records remain), but we can make some reasonable assumptions. There were parts of Shakespeare's mind that would have been inaccessible even to those closest to him. There were parts of his life which are lost due to carelessness, a lack of foresight, and simply the verisimilitudes of the era. But beyond that, Shakespeare was a man, a jobbing writer, and a product of his time. In that regard, we can look to the world around him, to the idiosyncrasies of the specific theatre companies he wrote for, and the monarchs, commoners, and systems he was part of. We may not find all the answers there but, if we can believe Levi and his cohort, we can at least hazard a guess.
March 26, 2022
Enjoyed listening to this as an audiobook. Perfect timing as there were frequent references to differences between the Folio's and I was so spoiled to have just seen them all on display at the Vancouver art gallery!
I've been in a real Shakespeare mood lately so it was lovely to relax and hear all about his life. The author was a bit of a tease though and frequently would hint at a legend about his life but then dodge telling the story because there was no proof of it actually happening. Wonderful for a factual biography but not as much food for the imagination. For my next Shakespeare read I want something full of quotes from his writing and also lots of hearsay!
Interesting to me was the choice of a woman narrator for the audiobook. She did a wonderful job it just made me pause when she read a sentence, "when I was a schoolboy" I had to double check the author who up to that point in the book I had assumed was also a woman. Guess I've got some work to do with assuming genders of authors! 😅
I've been in a real Shakespeare mood lately so it was lovely to relax and hear all about his life. The author was a bit of a tease though and frequently would hint at a legend about his life but then dodge telling the story because there was no proof of it actually happening. Wonderful for a factual biography but not as much food for the imagination. For my next Shakespeare read I want something full of quotes from his writing and also lots of hearsay!
Interesting to me was the choice of a woman narrator for the audiobook. She did a wonderful job it just made me pause when she read a sentence, "when I was a schoolboy" I had to double check the author who up to that point in the book I had assumed was also a woman. Guess I've got some work to do with assuming genders of authors! 😅
March 16, 2022
This is a fascinating, detailed history of The Bard's life and career. Wow, he accomplished so much and died when he was only 52. What have I done?
One doesn't need to be be an expert on the plays to appreciate this work of scholarship. There is much context of English history and how it crept into his plays, as well as identifying source material. Shakespeare's family life, business dealings, and contemporaries are also covered.
I didn't know he often acted, apparently generally parts of older characters.
One doesn't need to be be an expert on the plays to appreciate this work of scholarship. There is much context of English history and how it crept into his plays, as well as identifying source material. Shakespeare's family life, business dealings, and contemporaries are also covered.
I didn't know he often acted, apparently generally parts of older characters.
March 15, 2011
Fantastic insights into Shakespeare. Did you know he had twins that died - a boy named Romeo? This explored how his life shaped his writing.
December 30, 2025
I've read this twice, and I still don't really know anything about Shakespeare!
I can't blame Levi for that. Shakespeare will always remain an illusive figure for many reasons. In terms of concrete biographical detail, of course, there isn't a whole lot to know, which is one of the reasons various snobs and simpletons have tried to discredit the authorship of the lowly glover's son from Stratford.
Levi was having none of that, to his credit What does the historical record tell us about a number of his contemporaries such as John Webster and Thomas Heywood? Equally as little.
The number of literary allusions in the works of Shakespeare tell us that he was educated to a degree, yet he didn't quote from classical Latin and Greek as freely or as dogmatically as his peers. As Levi says,
'He never forgot his Latin learning but lucky for us he left school early.'
Furthermore, Levi puts forward the hypothesis that the underlying lesson of Shakespeare's history plays is that he despised the Court and aristocrats in general. ('He loathes these people, and in his plays he rooms them.')
He was beholden to them, however, and Levi accepts that the sonnets - which remember were supposed to be private - strongly suggest that he was in love with the Earl of Southampton to some degree, though they 'are not about buggery.' Even the nuns at my old Catholic school didn't pretend to deny the possibility of homosexuality in those sonnets.
Which brings us to a failing shared by a few biographers of the Bard that I have read: the making of extravagant claims on the poet's behalf.
There's nothing here as egregious as the nonsense implied in the title of Harold Bloom's Shakespeare: The Making of the Human, but Levi wasn't shy about crediting his subject with innovations beyond the realms of credulity.
Of the sonnets he says, 'It is not absolutely impossible that they are the first and best novel ever written', which is just tosh, and I lost count of the number of times he credited Shakespeare with creating an entirely new type of poetry with a single couplet from one of the plays.
He makes a case that the comedies were more expressive of Shakespeare the man than the tragedies, singling out Falstaff as the ultimate realisation of this belief:
'Falstaff goes deeper in him than Hamlet; humour is more instinctive and enters more profoundly into his nature than the elaboration of a tragedy.'
Maybe, maybe not. This is a highly literate biography. I admit that much of Levi's illustrations of Shakespeare's art went over my head. I can recommend it serious scholars.
Interestingly, he picked out Anthony and Cleopatra for special praise.
I can't blame Levi for that. Shakespeare will always remain an illusive figure for many reasons. In terms of concrete biographical detail, of course, there isn't a whole lot to know, which is one of the reasons various snobs and simpletons have tried to discredit the authorship of the lowly glover's son from Stratford.
Levi was having none of that, to his credit What does the historical record tell us about a number of his contemporaries such as John Webster and Thomas Heywood? Equally as little.
The number of literary allusions in the works of Shakespeare tell us that he was educated to a degree, yet he didn't quote from classical Latin and Greek as freely or as dogmatically as his peers. As Levi says,
'He never forgot his Latin learning but lucky for us he left school early.'
Furthermore, Levi puts forward the hypothesis that the underlying lesson of Shakespeare's history plays is that he despised the Court and aristocrats in general. ('He loathes these people, and in his plays he rooms them.')
He was beholden to them, however, and Levi accepts that the sonnets - which remember were supposed to be private - strongly suggest that he was in love with the Earl of Southampton to some degree, though they 'are not about buggery.' Even the nuns at my old Catholic school didn't pretend to deny the possibility of homosexuality in those sonnets.
Which brings us to a failing shared by a few biographers of the Bard that I have read: the making of extravagant claims on the poet's behalf.
There's nothing here as egregious as the nonsense implied in the title of Harold Bloom's Shakespeare: The Making of the Human, but Levi wasn't shy about crediting his subject with innovations beyond the realms of credulity.
Of the sonnets he says, 'It is not absolutely impossible that they are the first and best novel ever written', which is just tosh, and I lost count of the number of times he credited Shakespeare with creating an entirely new type of poetry with a single couplet from one of the plays.
He makes a case that the comedies were more expressive of Shakespeare the man than the tragedies, singling out Falstaff as the ultimate realisation of this belief:
'Falstaff goes deeper in him than Hamlet; humour is more instinctive and enters more profoundly into his nature than the elaboration of a tragedy.'
Maybe, maybe not. This is a highly literate biography. I admit that much of Levi's illustrations of Shakespeare's art went over my head. I can recommend it serious scholars.
Interestingly, he picked out Anthony and Cleopatra for special praise.
November 17, 2019
I could go on for pages, but this book isn't worth the trouble. It begins well. Written before Stephen Greenblatt's atrocious biography, Levi says he will not make the mistake Greenblatt will later make of finding Shakespeare's life in his works. Quite right, too. Nobody did that back then. This leaves Levi to supply the provable facts about Shakespeare, his family, friends, and associates that we can know, but most gloriously, almost, the book is composed of canny readings about the works as works.
I write almost because despite the claim that Levi will not find Shakespeare's biography in his works, he nonetheless commits this sin from time to time. Worse, he uses his judgment about the order the plays and poems were written. This is fine when there is something to substantiate his judgment, but often there is not, so Levi makes grand pronouncements about his readings. Those readings are usually sensitive, but not always. This is especially a problem when it comes to THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN. Fewer things are more certain in attribution studies then that Shakespeare is the co-author with John Fletcher. Without recourse to the thick amount of scholarly evidence supporting this, Levi writes that he knows better and refuses to dignify the play with his commentary. And so it goes.
Look, there are a few dozen moments when Levi lets the reader down with his arrogant self-assurance, but the fact is that when he gets things right, which he does most of the time, this book is just a blast: informative, fun to read, and a page turner. Watch out when Levi tells you he is using his judgment, otherwise enjoy this book.
I write almost because despite the claim that Levi will not find Shakespeare's biography in his works, he nonetheless commits this sin from time to time. Worse, he uses his judgment about the order the plays and poems were written. This is fine when there is something to substantiate his judgment, but often there is not, so Levi makes grand pronouncements about his readings. Those readings are usually sensitive, but not always. This is especially a problem when it comes to THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN. Fewer things are more certain in attribution studies then that Shakespeare is the co-author with John Fletcher. Without recourse to the thick amount of scholarly evidence supporting this, Levi writes that he knows better and refuses to dignify the play with his commentary. And so it goes.
Look, there are a few dozen moments when Levi lets the reader down with his arrogant self-assurance, but the fact is that when he gets things right, which he does most of the time, this book is just a blast: informative, fun to read, and a page turner. Watch out when Levi tells you he is using his judgment, otherwise enjoy this book.
January 13, 2010
A very good biography I read during my collegiate obsession with Shakespeare (not that there's anything wrong with that).
September 5, 2016
Ésta es una biografía más que correcta del escritor. Sobre todo porque está hecha a partir de documentos concretos y basada en los datos más objetivos que es posible obtener sobre la vida de alguien de quien no se conocen demasiadas cosas concretas ni se tienen demasiados datos objetivos. De vez en cuando se deslizan algunas consideraciones de tipo religioso que Levi incluye por motivos personales, pero que no dañan al conjunto.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews