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Shakespeare's Wife

Germaine Greer

3.44 · Rating details · 846 ratings · 187 reviews

A polemical, ground-breaking study of Elizabethan England that reclaims Ann Hathaway's rightful place in history.
Little is known about the wife of the world's most famous playwright; a great deal, none of it complimentary, has been assumed. The omission of her name from Shakespeare's will has been interpreted as evidence that she was nothing more than an unfortunate mista ...more

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Hardcover, 356 pages

Published 2007 by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

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Oct 15, 2007 Naomi rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: shakespeare enthusiasts and historical women's study buffs

Shelves: мозговая-власть

I am always surprised by Greer's actual writing. Her public persona is so contentious and brash. Previous to this book I had only read Greer's feminist writing (i.e. 'female eunich' and 'the whole woman'). Particularly in this book, she has a very measured and well supported style that weaves a cross stitch of fact and speculation into an enjoyable tale. She makes sure that the reader knows when she is fictionalising. Her main argument is that in the absence of documentary evidence why are Shake I am always surprised by Greer's actual writing. Her public persona is so contentious and brash. Previous to this book I had only read Greer's feminist writing (i.e. 'female eunich' and 'the whole woman'). Particularly in this book, she has a very measured and well supported style that weaves a cross stitch of fact and speculation into an enjoyable tale. She makes sure that the reader knows when she is fictionalising. Her main argument is that in the absence of documentary evidence why are Shakespearean scholars so willing to believe that Ann Hathaway/Shakespeare was a viper tongued, ugly, unlovable woman who Shakespeare couldn't wait to abandon after having been prodded to the alter at the end of a shotgun? In the process of making sense of what documents that do survive from the late 16th century on William and Ann themselves and using other sources unconnected to the Shakespeares, she covers a very interesting period in the economic and spiritual life of the family in Stradford. I enjoyed particularly Greer's analysis of what activities a housewife would be engaged in both in terms of keeping home and hearth but also in contributing to the family income as well. In terms of an analysis of academic prejudice Greer manages to get the reader thinking once again about what kind of woman Ann Shakespeare might have been and assessing our own social moors.

To quote the last paragraph in the book... 'all this, in common with most of this book, is heresy, and probably neither truer nor less true than the accepted prejudice. Ann Shakespeare cannot sensibly be written out of her husband's life if only because he himself was so aware of marriage as a challenging way of life... The Shakespeare wallahs have succeeded in creating a Bard in their own likeness, that is to say, incapable of relating to women, and have then vilified the one woman who remained true to him all his life, in order to exonerate him. There can be no doubt that Shakespeae neglected his wife, embarrassed her and even humiliated her, but attempting to justify his behaviour by vilifying her is puerile. The defenders of Ann Hathaway are usually derided as sentimental when they are trying to simply be fair. It is a more insidious variety of sentimentality that wants to believe that women who are ill treated must have brought it upon themselves. The creator of Hero, Desdemona, Imogen and Hermione knew better. Ann might say like Lady Macduff: I have done no harm. But I remember now I am in his earthly world, where to do harm is often laudable, to do good sometime accounted dangerous folly. Why then, alas, do I put up that womanly defence to say I have done no harm? (IV. ii. 75-80)'.

A satisfying conclusion to a satisfying book. ...more

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Nov 25, 2014 El rated it it was ok

Shelves: 17th-centurylit, cultural-studies-and-other, hear-me-roar-and-gender, library-borrow

Such a disappointment.

There's admittedly little actually known about William Shakespeare, and even less is known about his wife, Ann Hathaway. (No. Not that Ann Hathaway.) Greer's intention was to shine light on the life of the woman, their marriage, and to rage against all the misogyny in other historical accounts of Shakespeare's life. But... but... because there's little known about these people, anything that gets put into historical accounts are pure supposition. Greer's evident disgust at ...more

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Nov 29, 2008 Steven rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: history, biography

When I was in college, I was fortunate to spend a semester abroad in London. On one of our trips around the U.K., we spent a weekend at Stratford. I remember being impressed by Shakespeare's birthplace and seeing Jonathan Pryce in Hamlet, but my favorite part of the trip was a visit to Ann Hathaway's cottage (which, Greer points out, was never hers). It was a sunny afternoon in fall, and after our tour, we got to roam around the grounds. I remember a lot of windfall apples lying about. I also re When I was in college, I was fortunate to spend a semester abroad in London. On one of our trips around the U.K., we spent a weekend at Stratford. I remember being impressed by Shakespeare's birthplace and seeing Jonathan Pryce in Hamlet, but my favorite part of the trip was a visit to Ann Hathaway's cottage (which, Greer points out, was never hers). It was a sunny afternoon in fall, and after our tour, we got to roam around the grounds. I remember a lot of windfall apples lying about. I also remember wondering what it would have been like to grow up in that house.

Greer spends much time ripping apart moldy old assumptions about the relationship between Ann Hathaway and her husband. Many scholars, apparently, assume that Shakespeare spent so much time away from his wife because he couldn't stand her, or because he loved someone else, and Greer asks, "Why would you think that?" She delves into the lives of Ann's neighbors and builds many other possibilities for her -- businesswoman, brewer, lender, landlady, and, just possibly, publisher. Greer is a great champion for this mysterious woman who must have had an influence on some of the greatest writing in our language.

The book is filled with wonderful turns of phrase, some of which I wrote in my progress notes on this book. An example from late in the book: "The idea that she might be entitled to some of the credit for the preservation of her husband's work is apparently too ridiculous to contemplate, which is why we shall now contemplate it." Awesome.

And at the end, she sums things up nicely writing, "All this, in common with most of this book, is heresy, and probably neither truer nor less true than the accepted prejudice. Ann Shakespeare cannot sensibly be written out of her husband's life if only because he himself was so aware of marriage as a challenging way of life, a 'world-without-end bargain'."

I can recommend this book to anyone interested in this shadowy figure or in small-town domestic life during the Elizabethan era.
...more

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Jan 06, 2009 Cece marked it as gave-up-life-is-too-short

I admit that I only lasted about 50 pages, but when it appears an author has taken every theory going,loaded them in a shaker, given them a good tumble then poured them out and published as they fell, I lose patience quickly. Too many "she might have beens" and "she probablys" all mixed together, along with finger-shaking at previous Shakepeare scholars for treating Anne (or Ann, or Agnes) so unfairly. I am aware that little real evidence exists. I know that Greer is known for impeccable researc ...more

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Jul 30, 2015 Melaszka rated it really liked it

Inevitably, like all Shakespearean biographies, this is one part general social history, one part misguided attempt to read the plays and poems as a roman a clef, and one part wild, baseless speculation, but I wouldn't have expected anything else, given how little hard evidence there is.

At least it's a counterbalance to much of the misogynist speculation that has become the received wisdom about Hathaway and there are some sensible suggestions in amongst the extended flights of fancy - in partic ...more

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Jun 25, 2008 GraceAnne rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

What a great read this was. I absolutely love Greer's vivid, sly, and fierce intelligence and her ways of making argument.
Greer takes the same sources that have engendered a vision of Ann Hathaway, Shakespeare's wife, as plain, old, mean, harsh etc. and reinterprets them to their opposite number. There is not much documentation about her, so when that fails Greer tells us, in copious detail, about people like her. For example, she details the ages people in Stratford got married, and to whom, ho ...more

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Jul 23, 2017 Cynda rated it really liked it

Shelves: read2017, biography-or-memior, history, sociology-culture, women, shakespeare

4☆ for the new interpretations of Anne Hathaway Shakespeare's and thus William Shakespeare's life. Greer starts by pointing out that traditionally women were not considered important in the least. If anyone asked what would become of a young family when the father died, the speaker of the question was considered "womanish." I'm thinking that is an adult version of being called a "girl" or a "sissy." Among the classes lower than the gentry, married women and children had no rights to their husban ...more

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Sep 09, 2014 Richard rated it liked it

I love the idea of this book. To give Ann Hathaway some credit instead of her being seen as the nagging wife back in Stratford whilst Shakespeare was being a genius in the theatre world and fleshpots of London.

Ann Hathaway was eight years older than William Shakespeare when they married. This has led her to be stereotyped as having trapped him into marriage and then to becoming old and unattractive and a burden to him. Germaine Greer writes very well of how the age difference was not so unusual ...more

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Jan 03, 2010 Heather rated it really liked it

When I picked up this book, I thought that I had never really thought about Ann Hathaway before. As I got deeper into it, I realized that in actuality I had internalized all those ideas of Shakespeare scholars that she was an ugly shrew, that she tricked William Shakespeare into marrying her, that she drove him out of her home and into the arms of prostitutes, etc. etc. etc.

Those types of suppositions have little if any factual basis, and Greer does a good job of examining how and why they came ...more

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Aug 03, 2014 Ana rated it really liked it

Shelves: 21st-century, non-fiction, biography, history, books-about-books, british-literature, european-literature, australian-literature

If you've read Stephen Greenblatt's Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare, I'd recommend reading this book next. I need to stress that in both books there is too much speculation for either one to be held as historical fact, but I really like the Germaine Greer's courage in going against the grain by using her skill for impeccable research. A lot of writers have written negative judgements about Ann's character, given her age when marrying 'The Bard', taking advantage that she ne ...more

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Dec 27, 2012 Dana rated it it was ok

Though at parts, I enjoyed Greer's style of disparaging previous historians who have assumed that Shakespeare hated Ann, I also find that Greer did much the same thing, just while being on the side of Ann. She's still assuming, but just in Ann's favour, and that began to rub me the wrong way. It was also very full of figures; I didn't particularly need to know how each widow divvied up her belongings, or how the commons were being encroached on. A brief mention, summary, of what was happening wo ...more

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Aug 19, 2018 Christine rated it liked it

This is tough book to read. Very dense with many many footnotes and constant references to Shakespeare's and others' plays from the time. It is not for the average reader looking for an entertaining read. I was forced to skim a lot of it. Still very interesting to a history major and there's much to learn in it.

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Mar 04, 2018 William rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Though best known for her feminism, Germaine Greer speaks astutely and with insight on her specialism and passion: the works of Shakespeare. Her writing on the topic, too, has been fresh and incisive (see her book on Shakespeare). Therefore as a fan it disappointed me to find her book Shakespeare's Wife somewhat dull and inconsequential.

Asserting Ann Shakespeare's role in the Bard's life and agency in his work, Greer's enterprise is a worthy one, dense and rigorously researched (two stars for t Though best known for her feminism, Germaine Greer speaks astutely and with insight on her specialism and passion: the works of Shakespeare. Her writing on the topic, too, has been fresh and incisive (see her book on Shakespeare). Therefore as a fan it disappointed me to find her book Shakespeare's Wife somewhat dull and inconsequential.

Asserting Ann Shakespeare's role in the Bard's life and agency in his work, Greer's enterprise is a worthy one, dense and rigorously researched (two stars for that), but the end product hardly makes for worthwhile reading. The book is necessarily speculative given the paucity of direct evidence concerning its subject, so what ensues is a rambling tome only a fraction of which is actually about Shakespeare or his wife. What we get instead of heartwarming marital anecdotes are endless lists of women's belongings, the contents of interminable wills, ceaseless details of random disputes, family trees, prices, fines, dates etc. There's an entire insufferable chapter devoted to the symptoms suffered by syphilitics, one of whom Shakespeare may have been ... or not. Winding Shakespeare's sonnets into this turgid morass with only her relentless supposition to cohere the lot Greer even manages to make the greatest love poems of English literary history seem like snoreworthy data.

I can't count the number of times I've fallen asleep while reading this book!

To label it either scholarly or unscholarly might be a tad generous: the copious end notes and references are no less formidable than we might expect from Dr Greer, but the result is not an authoritative account. Yet nor is it a compelling narrative. It could have been a much slimmer volume or even a long chapter; perhaps better still it could have been half of a dual narrative juxtaposing what we think we know about Shakespeare running parallel or back to back with Greer's notions about his wife.

Truthfully I forced myself to read it, and the month it took me to do so broke a hitherto good run of reading when I had averaged more than a book per week. What Greer has created here would be forgivable — after all, there are plenty of writers out there with agendas of one kind or another who are far less tenacious and reliable than this one, not to mention plenty of boring books — except that this book has signally failed to inspire me to want to read anything more about Shakespeare or his wife for a long time or less still, and thus unforgivably, to return to his writings. ...more

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Apr 11, 2019 Louise Culmer rated it liked it

Quite an interesting book in which Germaine Greer attempts to piece together the life of Anne Hathaway. She is rightly critical of the many scholars who have assumed, based on no evidence at all, that Shakespeare disliked his wife. The trouble is that there is h ardly any information available about Anne Hathaway, and almost anything said about her must be only conjecture. Greer for example takes it for granted that Shakespeare did not support his family during his years in London, pointing out ...more

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Aug 08, 2018 Lucie Jane Miller rated it liked it

Shelves: bio-s, borrowed-from-library, england, feminisim, historical, informative, literary-criticism, non-fiction, pop-culture, shakespeare

Good read but slightly disappointed. Usually love Greer’s punchy commentaries but this one is a little frustrating.
Perhaps it is because she sheds no new light on Shakespeare’s history apart from discounting the biographies of her predecessors, the “bardalators” , who wrote about the life of Shakespeare and his family with unsupported hypotheses.
Loved the chapter on disease and 16th century medicine as she surmises on what actually killed Shakespeare. But which disease he really had is just spec ...more

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Dec 06, 2009 Charles Matthews rated it liked it · review of another edition

The little we know for certain about the private life of William Shakespeare could fit in a slender file folder: records of birth and marriage and death, a few other documents mostly pertaining to real estate transactions and some legal matters, some evidence of his work with various theatrical companies, a handful of mentions by his contemporaries, and the like. But we have the plays and poems, too, and from that has been spun the vast web of maybes and perhapses that constitutes Shakespeare bi The little we know for certain about the private life of William Shakespeare could fit in a slender file folder: records of birth and marriage and death, a few other documents mostly pertaining to real estate transactions and some legal matters, some evidence of his work with various theatrical companies, a handful of mentions by his contemporaries, and the like. But we have the plays and poems, too, and from that has been spun the vast web of maybes and perhapses that constitutes Shakespeare biography.

We know even less about his wife, Ann (or Anne or even Agnes) Hathaway Shakespeare. We do know that she was born in 1556 and died in 1623 (outliving him by seven years), that they married in 1582, when she was 26 and he was 18, and that their first child, Susanna, was born six months after the wedding. They had two more children, the twins Hamnet and Judith, in 1585. And that’s pretty much it for Ann, except that in his will, Shakespeare left her his “second-best bed.”

But if countless volumes can be got out of the little we know about William’s life, it’s not really surprising that Germaine Greer can get 400 pages out of Ann’s. Greer is best known – at least on this side of the Atlantic – for her 1970 book The Female Eunuch, a key text in the foundation of the women’s movement of the ’70s. British tabloid readers and TV-watchers know Greer as colorful and uninhibited. (The role of the public intellectual in Britain is evidently very different from that of the American equivalent. Greer appeared on a celebrity edition of the British version of “Big Brother.” Try to imagine John Updike on “Survivor.”) But her persona is anything but flamboyant in this new book, which is a sober, fact-laden attempt to figure out what the life of Mrs. Shakespeare must have been like.

This is not to say that Shakespeare’s Wife lacks controversy. Greer’s target is what she sees as the sexism of scholars who assume that Ann was more of an impediment than a helpmeet to Shakespeare. Scholars (mostly male) have conjectured that Shakespeare was trapped in a marriage to a woman he didn’t love. They cite the disparity in ages between William and Ann, the inference that she was pregnant when they wed, their prolonged separation when he went off to London to make it big and apparently left her in Stratford – three days’ journey away – to take care of the kids. And then there’s that dismissive-sounding bequest.

Greer’s chief target is Stephen Greenblatt, whose 2004 Shakespeare biography, Will in the World, was a bestseller. To paint her very different portrait of the Shakespeare marriage, she uses some of Greenblatt’s own history-scouring techniques, digging deep into the minute details of Elizabethan daily life. Maybe Ann wasn’t a conniving hussy who trapped a mere boy into marriage, she proposes. And maybe consummation of the marriage before the wedding ceremony was commonly accepted, maybe they weren’t separated as long or as often as is usually thought, and maybe Shakespeare didn’t leave her much in the will because he didn’t have to – she was already entitled to her share of the estate. She may well have been a capable businesswoman, supporting the family on her own while he was away. And that bed could have had both sentimental and monetary value.

The one thing Greer doesn’t do is rely heavily on the poems and plays for evidence. She does touch lightly on passages in the plays that reinforce evidence she has found elsewhere, and she dismisses the sonnets – with their implications of the poet’s affairs both gay and straight – as mostly conventional, except when she finds evidence of marital affection in them. She doesn’t even expound on marital themes in the plays, such as the jealous husband/innocent wife motif found in tragedy (Othello), comedy (The Merry Wives of Windsor) and romance (A Winter’s Tale).

What she does give us in her account of the life led by women in Elizabethan Stratford-upon-Avon, is sometimes fascinating. And sometimes it’s tedious and tendentious. There’s a long and mostly irrelevant description of what the medical practice of John Hall, the husband of Ann and William’s daughter Susanna, must have been like. And an equally detailed account of the conflict in Stratford over the enclosure of land once held in common, in which Greer suggests Ann and her daughters might have taken part – and then admits “perhaps none of them” did. And there’s a gruesome section on syphilis and its treatment, all in service of the possibility that William might have contracted it in the brothels of London.

The result is a bit of a jumble of a book. There are flashes of insight, and the suggestion that Ann may not have been such a burden to her husband as some have argued is a sensible one. But a barrage of facts about everything from childbirth in Elizabethan times to the making of ale to the price of land doesn’t constitute a full portrait of Shakespeare’s wife, or add very much to our understanding of his art.

In the end, on almost all questions, Greer is content to leave the conclusions up to the reader: “If Ann Shakespeare had both skill and business acumen, she could have become a wealthy woman in her own right. So far we don’t know that she did, but we don’t know that she didn’t either.” That admission, almost an authorial shrug of the shoulders, comes halfway through the book. Which may be as far as some readers get.

...more

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Sep 13, 2018 Carolyn Harris rated it really liked it

Shelves: biography-and-memoir, history

A fascinating biography of Anne Hathaway that places her and her daughters within the context of the social history of Stratford-upon-Avon. Greer's conclusions are necessarily speculative because so little is known about Shakespeare's personal life and his relationship with his family. Nevertheless, her analysis is a welcome counterpoint to longstanding assumptions that Shakespeare was pressured into his marriage and left town as soon as possible. In addition to examining how Anne Hathaway's exp ...more

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Aug 06, 2009 n* Dalal rated it it was amazing

Shakespeare's Wife isn't amazing because it's true or easy to read or riveting. Fabulously well-researched and armed with the power to doubt, Germaine Greer sets out with one arched eyebrow to question everything that has previously been surmised about Shakespeare's marriage.

The fact is, we have no idea what Shakespeare's private life was like, what he thought of his wife, how much of his work was imaginative fiction and how much of it was obsequious drivel, written only to maintain patronages. Shakespeare's Wife isn't amazing because it's true or easy to read or riveting. Fabulously well-researched and armed with the power to doubt, Germaine Greer sets out with one arched eyebrow to question everything that has previously been surmised about Shakespeare's marriage.

The fact is, we have no idea what Shakespeare's private life was like, what he thought of his wife, how much of his work was imaginative fiction and how much of it was obsequious drivel, written only to maintain patronages. But where prior Shakespeare scholars assume a poem or letter's meaning to be one thing, Germaine Greer assumes it means another. She states that because we really know nothing, prior Shakespeare scholars could be wrong, and she also openly acknowledges that because we really don't know anything, everything she posits could be wrong, too.

Shakespeare scholars have spent centuries arguing that Anne Hathaway, being 8 years older than dear Will, ensnared him by forcing her wild libido upon him and getting pregnant, thereby forcing him to marry her. However, Greer pores over birth registers from the 1500's and finds that illegitimate birth was ridiculously common, and plenty of "good women" ended up having bastard children. In fact, leaving Anne to maintain herself and her baby wouldn't have been impossible. Greer follows every assumption made by "Bardolaters" about Anne in this way. They claim she was useless; Greer finds evidence that many of Anne's contemporaries could make malt, sew, knit, milk ewes, make cheese, ale, bread, cream, bacon, cloth, woven goods, and that many of Anne's friends and neighbours were even money-lenders, making 10 per cent annually on their investments. Greer recognises that Anne's neighbours' success doesn't mean Anne had the same success. But it doesn't mean she didn't, either. There's just not much evidence either way. Shakespeare's Wife occasionally shows that more evidence exists to imagine Anne was independent (or helpful, or literate...) than not, but it also shows that there is not any definite conclusive evidence.

In a way, prior Shakespeare scholars have imagined their hero to have been a genius boy, tormented by a cruel old wife, driven to prostitutes by a cold ugly wife; they have imagined Anne to be a conniving woman who, once she'd had her way with dear Will (enough to have twins and another child with him), ended up leading a miserable solitary life. They imagine her entire life after Will was spent in dire poverty, illiterate, unable even to make any sort of use of herself, unaware and unimpressed by her husband's work. They often aim to prove Will's poor behaviour toward his wife is justified by her inelegance, her ugliness, and her general repugnance. Greer proves this story of Anne's life to be pure imagination. And then imagines something else entirely.

She essentially un-interprets the documents that previous scholars have interpreted to Anne's detriment. Will's will has been interpreted to mean that Will intentionally left Anne from his will because he hated her. Greer argues that there are a large number of possessions that aren't mentioned in Will's will, because many things already given would not need mentioning. Importantly missing: his papers. He does bequeath her the bed, and scholars have often said this is a scathing, mean-spirited comment on Anne's infidelity. Greer shows that beds were often bequeathed back then, because they were the most expensive piece of furniture in the house. Also, beds often couldn't be moved, so bequeathing a bed also usually meant the person it was given to couldn't be kicked out of their house. None of this proves Shakespeare did like his wife. It only proves that he might have.

In this way, through careful research and painstaking reinterpretation, Greer imagines for Anne a better life, a life of solid caring and simple honest living. At the end of the book, Greer states her entire book is "probably neither truer nor less true than the accepted prejudice." After all, we don't have proof either way, and this is why the limited information offered to history is infuriating. But she's offered Anne a marriage more like the ones her husband famously wrote about; a marriage where the wife is true to her husband and duties, even if the husband doesn't behave nearly so well.

What I found really brilliant about this analysis was how Greer clarifies the role that wives of public men are written into by "experts." She examines how the wives of men who are successful and well-liked are often painted as conniving and unloving. Think Hilary. The wives of the men we admire can never be worth sharing their beds. When Bill was in office, Hilary was painted as a careering woman; their marriage is regularly presented as the picture of marital strife. But she stayed with him and stood by him through an impeachment over an incident wherein Bill humiliated and betrayed her. Politically, I'm no Hilary fan; I think she's as snakey and weasely as any politician. But the judgement of her behaviour as the wife of another weaselly politician plainly shows how successful men are simply held to a different and lower standard. ...more

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Jun 21, 2016 Joy Rancatore rated it liked it

Germaine Greer urges readers to view William Shakespeare and his wife, Ann, through different lenses. This little-known, highly-criticized woman gets a bad rap from most people who study and idolize the man many litterateurs declare to be the greatest thing to ever happen to the written word since paper and the printing press.

Enter, Ms. Greer.

Not content to simply accept the popular assumptions about Mrs. Ann Hathaway Shakespeare, Greer chewed through all the research she could find on Ann, Will Germaine Greer urges readers to view William Shakespeare and his wife, Ann, through different lenses. This little-known, highly-criticized woman gets a bad rap from most people who study and idolize the man many litterateurs declare to be the greatest thing to ever happen to the written word since paper and the printing press.

Enter, Ms. Greer.

Not content to simply accept the popular assumptions about Mrs. Ann Hathaway Shakespeare, Greer chewed through all the research she could find on Ann, William, Stratford and all things English during their time period, including Puritans, Catholics, the Corporation, women, widows, wives left to fend for themselves, theatre folk and syphilis and spit back out her own theories.

While this book got a bit dense in some ways—So-and-so left so many yards of fabric and so many pounds and shillings and so many undergarments when they died...oh, my dear mercy; how is that relevant?—and hit a bit of information overload—Did we really need to know the details of how syphilis affected those (and all their bodily members) who engaged in ill-advised venery?—and a bit hard to follow in others—So-and-so, the father of so-and-so and the brother of such-and-such and the town such-and-such in such-and-such place who ended up being the distant relative of a possible neighbor of the Hathaways....unless, of course, the initial so-and-so was actually another so-and-so, in which case, he has nothing to do with them, if them really were the them we're supposing them to be, of course—and a bit difficult to keep up with actual facts vs. Greer's speculation (hence the 3-star rating), Greer gave Shakespeare lovers some new thoughts as they read the beloved Sonnets and attempt to picture the bard, his inspirations, his family and his pastimes and how his mysterious wife, who left very little hard and fast facts about herself behind.

Greer also gives an unusual picture at the often forgotten people of this time period—the poor, the outcasts and the women who, in many cases, truly may have been the nameless, driving forces behind history in ways we'll likely never know. ...more

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Aug 03, 2012 Wendilyn Emrys rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history, shakespeare

A innovative study of an interesting subject not properly addressed until now. “Shakespeare’s Wife" is a pragmatic and objective analysis of the extant contemporary material available. This study is not 'sexy' or assumptive, but intelligent and insightful. Not a 'Banbury Tale' to excite Hollywood, but how I would love to see this near to truth story told. For me this 'Hakim's Razor' examination of facts and real evidence is far more interesting than recent fantastical and farcical resurrections ...more

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Dec 05, 2009 Pamela rated it liked it · review of another edition

The title is misleading because, of course, nothing is known of Ann Hathaway Shakespeare's life; the book has to deal with what IS known of Stratford in that day. So, the title should have been Life in Stratford during Shakespeare's Life. The book is basically what her life could possibly have been like, but she plays a small role even in the book. There is so much research crammed into this book that reading gets very difficult. Every paragraph seems a tangent as the author weaves in other fami ...more

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Jul 08, 2008 Kirsten rated it liked it

This was somewhat uneven. Greer's main goal is to challenge all the scholarly assumptions that have been made about Ann Hathaway over the years: that she seduced Shakespeare, that she trapped him into a loveless marriage, that he ran off to London to get away from her, that she was illiterate and probably had no idea about his work...... She uses a lot of Stratfordian records to show that most of those scenarios were highly unlikely. (For example, if he had absconded to London, it would have bee ...more

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Feb 24, 2014 Eleanor rated it liked it

I loved the premise of advocating for the wife of the greatest marriage advocate.
The historical detail was fascinating, although there were a few statements which were not supported by citing sources.
Of particular note is the way Greer refers to her subject as Ann Shakespeare, rightly drawing the contrast between this (then) automatic change, to the way Ann's detractors insist on naming her Hathaway, as if nullifying their marriage.
Shakespeare himself comes off rather poorly in this work: selfi ...more

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Jun 13, 2010 Megan rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2010, non-fiction

Having just finished Will in the World, I was glad that Greer directly calls out Stephen Greenblatt and others on their assumptions about women, families, childbearing, and litigation from ~1580 to 1625. Great scholarship, detailed without being dry or heavy (for the most part). It's not as narrative as some, though I'll take restraint and accuracy over through line in a literary biography like this, but Greer's writing is clear and evocative, and her occasional fancies are clearly labeled as su ...more

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Aug 21, 2008 Kelly rated it really liked it

What a complicated but ultimately satisfying read! So little is known about Anne Hathaway, but that didn't stop Greer from poring through thousands of documents to create what Anne's life was probably like -- and help dispel some of the negative history she has been given.

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Apr 02, 2009 Elizabeth rated it did not like it

Shelves: literary-folk

Biggest disappointment ever! Pedantic to the nth degree. How is it possible to undertake such a subject and ruin it for the rest of us? A missed opportunity if there ever was one. Tear.

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Mar 17, 2018 Rob rated it it was amazing

A marvelous book on the wife of the greatest love poet in English which examines why Anne Hathaway has such a dreadful reputation in academia and amongst Shakespeare scholars. Anne supposedly was illiterate, tricked Willy into marriage, and was adulterous. Many know Greer as a contentious feminist whose early writings like " The Female Eunuch" rocked popular culture. She is primarily,however, a Shakespearean scholar, and has turned her eye toward the myths and misrepresentations surrounding the A marvelous book on the wife of the greatest love poet in English which examines why Anne Hathaway has such a dreadful reputation in academia and amongst Shakespeare scholars. Anne supposedly was illiterate, tricked Willy into marriage, and was adulterous. Many know Greer as a contentious feminist whose early writings like " The Female Eunuch" rocked popular culture. She is primarily,however, a Shakespearean scholar, and has turned her eye toward the myths and misrepresentations surrounding the wife of the bard. She shows it was common to sleep with your fiancé before the church marriage in Shakespeare's time because your were considered married already. Thus, its possible that Shakespeare and Anne knowingly conceived their first child. Also, Greer shows that a woman of Anne's rank almost certainly knew how to read and write. Further she effectively demonstrates that Anne may have had a strong hand in the finances of the Shakespeare family, as this was customary when husbands were away. And in fact, traveling husbands, who spent months and terms and seasons away from hometowns was common, as was the wife who would run family affairs in their absence. She notes that adultery was still a capital crime at this time, and that, especially in a small town like Stratford, no women would risk extra marital relations because the best she could hope for was expulsion from the community and loss of children, lands, and livelihood. She effectively shows which of Shakespeare's sonnets and love poetry could have been addressed to Anne Hathaway. Greer effectively spears many male Shakespeareans in her reevaluation. Stephen Greenblatt and Anthony Burgess among them. Both are some of my favorite writers on the bard, but I cannot argue with her conclusion that there is little evidence for the assertions they maintained and that she skewers. This may be dry for you in parts if you're not fascinated by Shakespeare, but for a Shakespeare geek its gold. Greer's writing lapses into common UK usage at times which might baffle the average American, but keep google handy and you'll be fine. ...more

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Dec 08, 2018 Eileen O'Finlan rated it liked it

Shelves: biographies

This is the first biography I've read of Ann Hathaway (the wife of William Shakespeare). I have never read a biography of Shakespeare, for that matter, though I did take and enjoy a college course on his writing.

I found this book to be very informative, not only regarding the Shakespeare and Hathaway families, but also of the place and time. The author, having written her Ph.D. dissertation on Shakespeare's comedies, clearly has a strong background in the time, place, and culture of her subject ...more

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Oct 20, 2018 Cordula rated it liked it

A 3.5 star book for me. Greer has done an incredible amount of research for this book. There are so few records about the Shakespeares but by close analysis of the lives of their contemporaries, Greer manages to imagine a life for Ann Hathaway and her children quite apart from what most Shakespeare scholars have sentenced them too. Greer's findings are often surprising and show up the prejudice of many "Bardolators". We may never be able to know the truth - unless somehow a treasure trove of doc ...more

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Jun 24, 2017 Richard Subber rated it liked it

This is scholarly nonfiction that is not to my taste.

I respect Greer’s effort to vivify Ann Hathaway, the wife of William Shakespeare.

I think she went overboard a bit.

Shakespeare’s Wife is longish, considering that lots of the details of Ann’s life aren’t well documented or remain obscure.

For my taste, too much of this work is carefully contingent or unselfconsciously speculative. The specification of what we don’t really know is perhaps more interesting to a scholar embracing esoterica than it ...more

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About Germaine Greer

Germaine Greer

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Germaine Greer is an Australian born writer, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century.

Greer's ideas have created controversy ever since her ground-breaking The Female Eunuch became an international best-seller in 1970, turning her overnight into a household name and bringing her both adulatio ...more

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Quotes from Shakespeare's Wife

“Until our own time, history focussed on man the achiever; the higher the achiever the more likely it was that the woman who slept in his bed would be judged unworthy of his company. Her husband's fans recoiled from the notion that she might have made a significant contribution towards his achievement of greatness. The possibility that a wife might have been closer to their idol than they could ever be, understood him better than they ever could, could not be entertained.” — 3 likes

“Society seems to find it irresistible to characterise the “unworldliness” of the male intellectual and academic in terms of his failure to control the women in his life.” — 0 likes

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