Customer Reviews

Late Mr. Shakespeare

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

How does one describe this book?

Permit me, madam, to attempt.

First of all, the main reason (in my opinion) to read "The Late Mr. Shakespeare" is, simply, the narrative (discounting the chapter containing Shakespeare's will, which was not nearly as fluid and I more or less skipped over). Robert Nye's prose is uncouth, unique, and undoubtedly true - I savored every word, and I yearn for more.

Another redeeming factor of this book was the disjointedness of it all - one could lose track of the book for months, pick it up again, and begin another chapter afresh - and it would hardly make any of the difference. The chapters are almost entirely unrelated (other than with the general aging of shakespeare and progression of his life) - and all were both intriguing and delicious. I enjoyed the discussion of Shakespeare's works and the possible innuendos to other works, friends, and people - in addition to some possible spots of his inspiration and speculations on his greatest pieces. It doesn't matter to me how much is true and how much is mishmash - the fact of the matter is that it was interesting. But then, I've always had an obsession with editorials and the like, so I suppose this book was straight up my alley.

And let us not forget the entirely estranged bits of the book that tie the entire image of Shakespeare together - the insults he shouted while engaging in tennis, for example.

In summary, this is likely not meant to be a sit-down-and-read sort of book, but a stop-and-think-for-a-few-moments-and-move-on read. And it's both a unique and likable sort of method.

Finally, the ending was satisfying. I have experienced such a delicacy in ages.

Pickleherring takes one on a romp through Shakespeare's life, giving the modern reader a real feel for the life of the Bard and his times. Nye's use of the language is delightful, his timing perfect (except for what I saw as a few slow moments in the last third of tbe book), and his send-up of many of the controversies surrounding Shakespeare and his work is wonderful. I loved the use of scholarly footnotes smack in the middle of two of the most dramatic pages of the book. I laughed, I cried, and I fell in love with the narrator. A little Shakespeare knowledge is advised; it will send most of us eagerly to the reference books and to WS's works.

"The Late Mr. Shakespeare" just published in the United States, but published last year in England is Robert Nye's second novel about Shakespeare, and his second best novel about Shakespeare. Nye's earlier novel "Mrs. Shakespeare" has not been published in the USA as far as I can tell,though it is still in print in the UK. In the earlier novel Nye has Shakespeare's wife Anne tell her story. It is a slim novel, and a good read. On the last page of "The Late Mr. Shakespeare" Nye gives the reader a list of the authors that he read and used in writing the novel. This "critic-fuel" (to borrow a term from Alasdair Gray) is what I found most interesting about the book. No doubt scholars and critics will be able to identify Nye's sources. I will just mention a few examples: Robert Reynolds, the narrator, also known as Pickleherring is from E. K. Chambers' "Elizabethan Stage," volume 2, p.336. The historical Reynolds was an actor, but had no professional relationship with Shakespeare. He and his wife Jane were indicted for non-attendence at church 1616 and 1617. Pickleherring was the name by which he was known in Germany. The other actors Nye mentions are also listed in Chamber's book. Shakespeare's first job in London, horse-holding at the theatre is from Johnson's preface to Shakespeare's plays. The chapter on Tom O'Bedlam comes from an essay by Robert Graves. The chapter on the plague in London during the year 1665 is from Defoe's "Journal of the Plague Year." I could go on, but I think you get my point. Some have said that the more you know about Elizabethan England the more you will enjoy this book. That's not quite correct. The more you know about Shakespearean facts, traditions and legends, the more you can sift through the impossible, the plausible and the factual of Nye's book. Is this mixture of impossible, plausable and factual entertaining? For me knowing where Nye gathered his materials was distracting. Now I am sure that most of Nye's readers have not read the large scholarly biographies of Shakespeare by Halliwell-Phillips, Chambers, or Fripp, but I have, and I prefer their versions of Shakespeare to Nye's.

This book performs the admirable feat of allowing the reader to stand in the shoes of one of Shakespeare's actors (and in the case of the novel's main character--one of those players who who performed the female roles--to wear his petticoats). A tapastry of known facts and the speculations of critics and readers over the centuries since Shakespeare lived emmerse us in those ribald and interesting times when English and England were being funnelled through the mind and works of that great playwright. I get the feeling that somewhere in that forest of fact and fancy an understanding of Shakespeare and his times were to be had. I only wish the author's other novels, including Mrs. Shakespeare, were still in print. Even Amazon.com doesn't seem to list that novel about the bard's wife among the in print or out of print offerings.

This was a different though thoroughly delightful twist to Mr. Nye's earlier "Shakespeare" offering. As a mildly edifying, fictional romp through WS's life and times, this book is a welcome alternative to more academic and more boring works on the subject. Caution for the "X" rating in several chapters. I found them humorous and stimulating, though others may find them much too much more than simply ribald!

I can't believe I'm the first reader to submit a review of this book. How is it possible that this novel hasn't been discovered by a legion of admirers -- especially in the wake of "Shakespeare in Love"? This is one of the most enjoyable reads I've had in a long while. Anyone with a passing interest in Shakespeare will find much to appreciate in this novel. And the more familiar you are with the Bard, the more you will glean from it. A fascinating mix of fact, speculation, and outright fabrication, "The Late Mr. Shakespeare" is a riotously bawdy romp which occasionally spins on a dime to become touching, contemplative, and wise. Wonderfully written.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Having been a fan of Shakespeare for many years, this book surprised and delighted me with its creative humor and amusing style. Pickleherring is a wonderfully realistic character, living above a brothel and surviving on eggs, which sometimes serve to remind him of the Bard's life. A great piece of work, a must-read for anyone who wants to know more about Shakespeare than his plays.

This book on Shakespeare is a work of fiction, which actually proves to be very appropriate. As Robert Nye states in his book, if even you were to write a story on your life, even that would be a work of fiction, too. Whether intentionally or not, much of our lives are based on half-truths, white lies, out-right lies, misconceptions, misunderstandings, in addition to whole truths and any exaggerations or diminutives of them, all perceived from a single unique viewpoint. On a personal note, I've found this to be true. While growing up, I was presented with one set of facts which I found out on my own later to be not entirely true and that the original set of facts had been given to paint a "prettier picture." It is conceivable that even Shakespeare may have believed some fiction as truth...

Robert Nye has collected in his book many of the rumors, tall tales, stories - be them ugly or pretty, theorizing, etc. down to even the jokes once cracked that have circulated around about Shakespeare and his family from the mouths of his peers, friends and enemies, townspeople, rivals, and anyone else in between. From the very few solid information that we have about the man, this brings to the reader a very interesting perspective. Out of this melange, we can weed for ourselves some of the truth and gain a sense of the nature of Shakespeare. This very extensive collection does make the book very disjointed to read, which is one of the criticisms I have about the book, although due to the nature of collecting all these stories, I don't think the book could have been written any differently. My other criticism, or maybe more a question that I have about the book, is how much of these rumors are true rumors, and not ones that the author may have made up??? I am assuming that all of these second hand recollections are actual since Nye does give a much too lengthy list of acknowledgements right from the start of the book that I felt should have really belonged at the end of the book. This would have given more crediblilty to the stories, instead of boring me to tears with such a long list before the book even rolls off to a start.

One thing I found amusing to read was just as how a few folks among us had believed the King of Rock, Elvis Presley himself, may have supposedly faked his death and is living somewhere in cognito, so did the folks during Shakespeare's times think along similar lines. Some thought that Shakespeare hadn't really died and was living on Iceland instead... We're really not all that different from people of long ago.

Through the musings of his main character, an actor who was in Shakespeare's theater company, Nye also effectively illustrates that when one writes a biography, one cannot help from including one's own life story. It's the author's way of perceiving truth in relation to the author's own life that cannot help from being included in the biography being written. This is an interesting point to consider when reading any biography.

I highly reccommend this book. In addition to all the interesting aspects presented about Shakespeare, I had some laughs and found it enjoyable to read. It is definitely unlike any book I have read. You'll certainly gain an interesting outlook on Shakespeare.

Like many people I always thought of Shakespeare as a bit,well,overwhelming. His language,though beautiful ,is so sublime its hard to believe that one man (who only went to school until age 14) could write have it without some "assistance". This book,which dosen't proclaim to be "The" definative biography of his life and works,is in spite of it's serious title,a rather cheeky,earthy, and at times very bawdy,but above all,acessible look at the Bard. Through a fictional? narrator charactor named nicknamed Pickleherring ,who performed many of the female parts as one of his original players,we are taken on a journey through WS's life in a unprentious,humorous fashion. Despite
advanced age and the distractions of the young prostitute next door(he live above a brothel) He still weaves has a highly engrossing "I Was There" tome with fascinating details and antedotes about the author that make "The Bard" both human and accessible. Above all, This book was fun and made Shakespeare and the times he lived in, both immediate and belivable. For anyone who would like to read more about Shakepeare,but in a non-textbook format,give this book a try..!

I found this a fairly putdownable book, best dipped into in small doses. Nye is always readable, nearly always amusing, but his relentless clever-cleverness and determination to show off his erudition, got on my nerves, the same problem I had in reading his "Falstaff".