The Shakespeare Game: The Mystery of the Great Phoenix

by Ilya Gililov

Who was Shakespeare? In an intellectual sensation that went through three printings in the first year, a Moscow scholar presents a solidly documented work showing how, and why, the 5th Earl of Rutland wrote most of the Shakespeare oeuvre. Gililov has studied watermarks and printer's type, registration dates, and documented biographical details of Shakespeare contemporaries, considering the physical evidence as well as the personalities and motives of the suspects.

Genres: Nonfiction

500 pages, Paperback

First published September 21, 2002

Reviews

[Adi (Reading in the Windowseat) · Rating 5 out of 5]

The great secret behind the curtain brought center-stage.

Though I am hardly acquainted with Shakespeare's biography and the theories presented by Shakespeareans, I must admit I have been completely convinced by the numerous facts, dates and names, presented in this book to support Ilya Gililov's thesis.

The results of years upon years of research, of studying both historical documents and poetic works in great detail, offered by the author in this book cannot leave the reader wondering whether his view of the person(s) behind the mask William Shakespeare is plausible - the facts presented, not only with words, but also with pictures, are far too many, too well-aranged to be "just a coincidence".

A fascinating read, which offers an interesting, verisimilar view of the mystification of the names of earls, of noblemen, of the "poets from the Belvoir vale", and of their "play on the stage of Life".

[Pavel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not sure about scietific accuracy of this work, I guess you have to be a literature scientist yourself and spend a lot of time in the libraries carefully examining all the facts compiled in this book, but if you take this work as a let's say half-fiction, letting it entertain you - it will tell you a thriller story indeed.
Spoilers here would be deadly, but basically this book is one of those stories (and perhaps one of the best in its genre) about that Stattford guy not being an author of all those great plays and sonets.

[Diana Docheva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding... (this I wrote while I was reading it..)
Absolutely outstanding!!!(when I finally read it)
Special thanks to Emili for giving me this one chance to read the book,because it cannot be found anywhere else in Gabrovo :(
Things I have never known before were revealed and things which I took for granted were shaken...it really was and still remains a mystery...Shakespeare!

[Kira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Очень любопытно.

[Petar Terziev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Научен, но по художествен начин увлекателен труд, даващ солидни аргументи в подкрепа на собствената си теза за това кой се крие зад Играта Уилям Шекспир.