Customer Reviews

So Long as Men Can Breathe: The Untold Story of Shakespeare's Sonnets

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I would describe Mr. Heylin's book as more than just a well-researched history of Shakespeare's sonnets and of theories about how and why they were published. One of the author's key premises is that the bootlegging of manuscripts in Elizabethan times, like the bootlegging of rock music today, was common. He then argues convincingly, in my opinion, that the sonnets were not authorized, and then may have even been suppressed after publication by powerful friends of Shakespeare. (The sonnets almost certainly caused a scandal.)

Also, Mr. Heylin makes the case that William Herbert was probably the so-called "Fair Youth" of the sonnets, and also paints a vivid picture of the world of copywriting - if we can call it that - and of book publishing in Shakespeare's time. The author then takes us on an historical journey about the republication of the sonnets, and about how they were forgotten for almost two hundred years until they were rediscovered, finally, by the Romantic poets.

Finally, Mr. Heylin puts forth a theory about who many have given Thorpe a manuscript copy of the sonnets. While I think the theory is a bit of a stretch, it does provide interesting historical information about Elizabethan literary life.

If you're interested in Shakespeare's sonnets, I think this book is a must.
So Long As Man Can Breath is, for the most part, easy reading, almost as easy as a good detective novel. That is partly because the book has little critical analysis of the sonnets. (There is so much analysis elsewhere that readers shouldn't be disappointed.) I would, however, have liked to have read a lot more about who Mr. Heylin thinks the Dark Lady might have been.

Then again, so many of our questions about Shakespeare's sonnets will never be answered, but Mr. Heylin's fair and balanced book brings us much closer to the truth.

The sonnets of Shakespeare are renowned as the very best in the world. "So Long as Men Can Breathe: The Untold Story of Shakespeare's Sonnets" tells of the publishing industry in a time long past, when copyright laws were simply unheard of. Relating the saga of Shakespeare, his publishers and peers, and the chaos surrounding the process of getting books published during the era, "So Long As Men Can Breathe" is highly entertaining, educational, and recommended reading.

I just wrote several paragraphs of praise for Mr. Heylin's book, only to have them disappear when I tried to edit a line.
So I'll just say that I concur with the previous reviewers about the book's lively style, broad coverage, and authoritative
tone. Heylin's argument is convincing that the sonnets published in 1609 by Thomas Thorpe were "booklegged" -- to the great
advantage of the world's future generations.
I enjoyed the discussion of pro-and-con points regarding the identity of the "Fair Youth," but I am not convinced that
the Fair Youth was William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke. Although Heylin's portrait of the "other will" is entertaining, it isn't
clear that he was as "wild" as Heylin assumes, or that this would have been a factor in the personality revealed in the first
17 sonnets.
It's understandable that Heylin adopts unquestioningly the conventional assumptions that Shakespeare was a commoner
addressing an earl far above him in rank, but that does not disqualify Southampton, and the theory that these sonnets were a
work-for-hire is weak, since there is no evidence that the Countess of Pembroke -- a fine poet herself, and the sister of Philip
Sidney -- would have needed to pay for any poetic assistance from an unproven new talent.
It would have been to Heylin's advantage to consider some of the non-Stratfordian theories, such as that of Dorothy and Charlton Ogburn(authors of the De Vere biography "This Star of England") that Southampton was the natural son of Queen Elizabeth and her favorite court playwright, Edward De Vere. That would explain why it was so important for the Fair Youth to get married and reproduce. A comparison of pictures of Elizabeth and Southampton would have supported the assertion in Sonnet 3: "Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee / recalls the lovely April of her prime." That would also have provided an explanation for the suppression of the sonnets -- since King James the Ist of England would not have welcomed a book proclaiming the idea that Elizabeth had a son who might have had a claim to the throne. Perhaps also in 1609, Elizabeth had a grandson in the person of Henry Wriothesley's son, the Fourth Earl of Southampton.
Roland Emmerich is now making a movie taking that "Prince Tudor" position, which may have a considerable effect on the public perception of who the "Fair Youth" was, and what he meant to Shakespeare.