Status Updates From Contested Will: Who Wrote S...

gonna finish this weekend

audiobook and physical book 🎧📖

Finished the section on "Oxford", and now up to the fourth (and final, with the exception of the epilogue) section, "Shakespeare".

Finished the sections on "Shakespeare" and "Bacon". Now up to Section 3, "Oxford".

See pages 69 to 79 for Shapiro’s discussion of homer Jesus, and the higher criticism. Cut to page 103 where Shapiro says of Delia bacon, “throughout, her essay is fused with the language of the debates over the higher criticism in the life of Jesus – though strangely, this feature of her argument has passed almost without notice by critics, it begins to feel as if Shakespeare becomes a surrogate for her doubts

james shapiro

i wonder what edward de vere would have made of all of this

came for the shakespeare, stayed for the mark twain slander

decided this man is too mature because he hasn't even mentioned that delia bacon and francis bacon have the same surname and like why would you write a whole book about this and not take the opportunity to go "haha same name"

robert browning was deathing the author before barthes was even alive

anachronism count: 5

YAY

I am loving this book. He goes into so much more than just the facts of the authorship controversy. He’s thoroughly researched and an excellent writer. It’s so engaging. I’m excited to learn more as I read the second half.

Started nearly two years ago, but put aside, as I only have a paper copy (bought at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon), and these days I most read on Kindle. I will reset the start, but I hope I’ll persevere this time round.

Mark Twain was rather full of himself, wasn't he lol.

I am just so frustrated with people and history.. and people god damnit.

I am just so frustrated with people and history.. and people god damnit.

I am just so frustrated with people and history.. and people god damnit.

I did not expect to laugh out loud as much as I have.

95

95

"Why is it that when people talk about [Shakespeare] they have to go crazy? What the fuck is the matter with them? They want to know what can't be known. For what? Why are they doing this? They don't really know. It's sad. It really is. May the Lord have mercy on them. They are lost souls. They really don't know. It's sad – it really is."

Ugh, the audio production quality of this audiobook is not great. I wish it was better.

One disc left. Much more interesting than I thought it would be. I am enjoying the tone -- not too academic. I love all the detail that Shapiro has included. I am seeing the Globe burn down and be rebuilt. Great book for more information on the topic. Very good narrator!

Life's good when you're reading a good book!

A lovely birthday present from my lovely mom.

180

Astounding how many authors have tried to claim that Shakespeare's plays and sonnets were autobiographical when there is absolutely no evidence of it.

Fascinating reading about the forgeries that started as early as the 1700s.

And the seventeenth-century biographer John Aubrey hadn’t helped de Vere’s legacy by retailing an embarrassing and probably apocryphal anecdote about him: “This Earl of Oxford, making of his low obeisance to Queen Elizabeth, happened to let a fart, at which he was so abashed and ashamed that he went to travel seven years. On his return the Queen welcomed him home, and said, ‘My lord, I had forgot the fart.’”