Her Infinite Variety: Stories of Shakespeare and the Women He Loved [Bargain Price] [Paperback]

Pamela Rafael Berkman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 7, 2001

With elegance, sympathy, and nuance, Her Infinite Variety celebrates the women in William Shakespeare's world. These lyrical stories move from Elizabethan London, where Shakespeare is drawn to the plight of the young wife of a wealthy friend, to a wintry Denmark, where Ophelia struggles to understand her love for Hamlet, and to Shakespeare's Stratford home, where his daughter Judith deliberately enters into a shameful marriage. At the center of this remarkable book is Shakespeare's enduring love for Anne Hathaway, his beautiful, passionate, illiterate wife. Together, the masterfully interwoven stories of Her Infinite Variety bring to life a Shakespeare who was formed by the women he loved -- and who loved him.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Susan Vreeland author of Girl in Hyacinth Blue What a brave piece of work, to imagine Shakespeare's women...A book to stimulate the imagination and remind us of the riches of the Bard's legacy.

Andrea Barrett author of Ship Fever These stories bring alive the women -- both real and imagined -- who delighted Shakespeare: and now delight us.

Lisa Shea author of Hula A visionary work -- I read it in thrall to Berkman's bold, brave crafting of these exquisite linked stories.

Robin Maxwell author of The Queen's Bastard This book is a marvel! Sublimely imaginative and gorgeously wrought. The Bard himself would stand and applaud. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Pamela Rafael Berkman works in book publishing and lives in Glendale, California. This is her first book. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• ISBN-10: 074321255X
• ASIN: B000H2N29C
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,110,031 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Pamela Rafael Berkman was born in Chicago. Her first collection, "Her Infinite Variety: Stories of Shakespeare and the Women He Loved," told short stories about women in Shakespeare's life and plays from their points of view. It made the San Francisco Chronicle bestseller list. The title story of her contemporary collection, "The Falling Nun," was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is working on her first novel, on a Shakespeare theme again: "Will's Dark Lady," about Shakespeare, the Dark Lady of his sonnets, and the unsolved mystery of the death of his friend and fellow playwright, Christopher Marlowe.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sexy, intriguing stories about Shakespeare's women, May 21, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Her Infinite Variety: Stories of Shakespeare and the Women He Loved (Paperback)

I really loved this book. It's a fun, intelligent look at what might have been going on in the minds of Shakespeare's women. The author does a great job of telling the stories of women who are often silent in Shakespeare's plays, like Ophelia and Lady Capulet. There are also terrific stories about Shakespeare's wife, daughter and about Queen Elizabeth. I especially liked the story of his daughter, Judith and the one about Lady Macbeth. I read this sitting on my deck and it was a great start for the summer.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shakespeare for the Rest of Us, August 15, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Her Infinite Variety: Stories of Shakespeare and the Women He Loved (Paperback)

To read *Her Infinite Variety* is to be dazzled by Pamela Berkman's imaginative capacity. From story to story, she displays a rare ability to intuit the gaps in our knowledge of Shakespeare's women--the ones in his life as well as the ones in his art--and then to fill in those gaps with the delicate filigree of her fiction. Yet while these stories display a delicately rigorous structure, the language holding them together is as vibrant and sexy as the women they depict. If you have never enjoyed Shakespeare, buy this book. Berkman's tart-tongued Titania, her haunted Ophelia, and her utterly down-to-earth Bard (rescued, finally, from both scholars and souvenir-sellers) will make you reconsider.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars clever/humorous/insightful, July 6, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Her Infinite Variety: Stories of Shakespeare and the Women He Loved (Paperback)

Pamela Berkman's Her Infinite Variety is a clever/humorous/insightful blend of a few facts and a lot of fiction. It is a fictional treatment of the lives of the women of Shakespeare. Six of the stories are about the women in his life, and four the women of his plays. Or we might say that three about women of his plays and one about a fairy -- Titania.

Ms Berkman has done all of the work required for historic fiction: she writes of everything from the laws of the time to the family linen. To this she has added an inspired imagination and outstanding writing.

The result is an excellent collection of linked stories -- it almost adds up to a novel about Shakespear. She has taken what little we know of these figures and constructed plausible, fascinating, three-dimensional women.

I would have entitled this review "Her Infinite Imagination," but someone has already used it.