Customer Reviews

The Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines

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This is a poignant story about loss and the manner in which lost things become internalized, become part of our idea of heaven. Though that's a rather Wordsworthian theme, the content of the story deals with the interpretation of Shakespeare, specifically heresies like "Oxfordianism". This is the idea that the actor Shakespeare was a front, his works secretly written by the powerful nobleman Lord Oxford. Why would someone wish to believe such a thing? Crowley connects it with loss and need. The golden garden needs a golden God, and since it doesn't obviously have one, and doesn't obviously exist, it must all be secret. Things sufficiently secret can stay true no matter what the facts are.

Just a story, as the cover makes clear, but one that will stay with you.

Crowley's eye for detail and depth is well seen in this story. Though the book version is difficult to find, it was orginially published in Conjunctions which is a Lit quarterly published by Bard College, which is where I first read it and fell in love with the elegant use of language that Crowley possesses.