Shakespeare and His Contemporaries

by Charles Nicholl

Brand new book!

Genres: Shakespeare, History, British Literature, Biography

112 pages, Hardcover

First published October 24, 2005

About the author

Charles Nicholl is an English author specializing in works of history, biography, literary detection, and travel. His subjects have included Christopher Marlowe, Arthur Rimbaud, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Nashe and William Shakespeare. Besides his literary output, Nicholl has also presented documentary programs on television. In 1974 he was the winner of the Sunday Times Young Writer Award for his account of an LSD trip entitled 'The Ups and The Downs'.

Nicholl was educated at King's College, Cambridge, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has lectured in Britain, Italy and the United States. He lives in Lucchesia in Italy with his wife and children. He also lectures on Martin Randall Travel tours.

Reviews

[Rebecca Reid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although a slim volume, Shakespeare and his Contemporaries by Charles Nicholl (published by the British National Portrait Gallery 2005) accomplishes it’s purpose. As the title indicates, the volume illustrates the various persons, distinguished and not, that Shakespeare was familiar with during the years of his life. Some of these people were associates of the Bard: fellow writers, patrons, and actors. Others were higher class gentlemen and ladies, such as the queen and her ladies in waiting. All were people who were alive during Shakespeare’s writing years, and he probably was familiar with them.

As it was published by the National Portrait Gallery, most of the Bard’s contemporaries’ portraits are shown (although it is interesting to see just which people he associated with do not have any remaining portraits: they will be forever faceless). Nicholl’s text does justice to the limited space the volume was intended to fill: he does not wax long on unnecessary bibliographical details, but rather keeps his succinct thoughts on Shakespeare’s contemporaries relevant to the life details that may be interesting to the scholar of Shakespeare. The tone is official and to the point: it’s not necessarily a light read. That said, given the brevity and succinct nature of the writing, it is a perfect tone.

This volume is not a complete portrait of any contemporary of Shakespeare, nor a complete portrait of the Bard himself. Nonetheless, it is certainly an appropriate scholarly introduction to Shakespeare’s possibly significant contemporaries. The volume’s audience may be limited to scholars: I had to request an Interlibrary Loan from a nearby university library.

Nonetheless, I must remind the reader of this blog once again that I am not a scholar, nor did I read the volume with a scholar’s eye: I’m simply a reader of Shakespeare who was curious about those he may or may not have associated with. Because my purposes in reading are not scholarly, I’m certain the sketches of the various people will not remain with me. All the same, I’m glad I picked up Shakespeare and His Contemporaries right now: it was a perfect glimpse at the significant persons living during Shakespeare’s lifetime.

Cross posted on my blog

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some very interesting little tidbits of knowledge. I very much enjoy Charles Nicholl’s style and look forward to reading more of his backlist.

[Annabelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

No groundbreaking revelations here, just a few interesting trivia that may come in handy with crossword conundrums.

Two and half stars. Which translates to a combination of "it was ok" and "I liked it."

[Tamara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not mind-blowing, but an enjoyable informative read. Lead me to add some works to my reading list. A quick read took about 2 and a half days. A handy list of works cited.