The Making of the National Poet: Shakespeare, Adaptation and Authorship, 1660-1769 (Clarendon Paperbacks) [Paperback]

Michael Dobson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0198183232 | ISBN-13: 978-0198183235 | Publication Date: January 12, 1995

The century between the Restoration and David Garrick's Stratford Jubilee saw William Shakespeare's promotion from the status of archaic, rustic playwright to that of England's timeless Bard, and with it the complete transformation of the ways in which his plays were staged, published, and read. But why Shakespeare? and what different interests did this process serve? The Making of the National Poet is the first full-length study since the 1920s of the Restoration's and eighteenth century's revisions and revaluations of Shakespeare, and the first to consider the period's much-reviled stage adaptations in the context of the profound cultural changes in which they participate. Drawing on a wide range of evidence--including engravings, promptbooks, diaries, statuary, and previously unpublished poems, it examines how and why Shakespeare was retrospectively claimed as both a respectable Enlightenment author and a crucial and contested symbol of British national identity. Through engaging and informative analysis, Dobson's book provides the definitive account of the theater's role in establishing Shakespeare as Britain's National Poet.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Seminal....For persons interested in how Shakespeare became the national poet, this volume is 'must' reading....Required for British intellectual history, Shakespearean criticism, and drama collections generally."--Choice

"Exceptionally sophisticated, exceptionally learned, exceptionally witty--not only about Shakespeare, but about British cultural history in the century after the Restoration and about the whole machinery by which major artistic reputations are established. It contains, among much else, the best account yet written of the politics of theatrical adaptations of Shakepeare's plays."--Gary Taylor, Brandeis University

"Essential...for all Shakespeare libraries and serious scholars."--Bibliotheque D'Humanisme Et Renaissance

"Michael Dobson has boldly gone where no man has gone-for a long, long time....A bravura performance that should entertain and inform all Shakespeareans..."--Shakespeare Quarterly processes

"The Enlightenment dies hard, but Dobson is to be thanked for so adroitly and cleverly ushering it along."--Modern Language Review

About the Author

Michael Dobson is at University of Illinois at Chicago.

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (January 12, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198183232
• ISBN-13: 978-0198183235
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,244,529 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic of its genre, September 27, 2005

By 

Cedric LaFarge (Newport, Rhode Island) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Making of the National Poet: Shakespeare, Adaptation and Authorship, 1660-1769 (Hardcover)

Back in the late 1980s there was a small group of scholars working on the question of how Shakspeare's reputation was formed: people like Gary Taylor, Mike Bristol, Jonathan Bate. But this book was the best of the studies they produced -- witty, fluent, rich in evidence, persuasive in argument. It has changed forever the way we understand how Shakespeare has interacted with cultures since his own time. And it has lovely pictures.