Shakespeare [Paperback]

Anthony Burgess (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 9, 2002

Like Burgess's early novel, Nothing Like the Sun: A Story of Shakespeare's Love-Life, this equally delightful factual treatment of what we know of the Bard combines Burgess's stimulating erudition and his well-informed imagination. The result is at once a speculative biography, a theatrical history, and a re-creation of the Elizabethan age. Whether a vivid retracing of the evolution Elizabethan theater, a bravura reconstruction of the first performance of Hamlet, an infiltration of the intricacies of the court of the Virgin Queen, or an elegy on the era's end with the distrastrous Essex Rebellion, Burgess -- author of the classic A Clockwork Orange -- sets the stage for England's most glorious time and turns the spotlight on the figure of William Shakespeare. "Animated by affection and an understanding of the creative imagination that only a creative writer can bring to bear."—Atlantic Monthly "A smooth-flowing narrative, often enlivened by Anthony Burgess's Joycean appetite for linguistic fantasy."—Economist "Bright, racy...knowledgeable and humorous, alternately sensible and quirky."—Terry Eagleton, Commonweal "Burgess's wonderfully well-stocked mind and essentially wayward spirits are just right for summoning up an apparition of the Bard...."—Daily Telegraph

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Burgess used Shakespeare as a character in his 1964 novel Nothing Like the Sun but turned a more critical eye to the bard's life in this 1970 outing. The book is at once the story of Shakespeare the writer as well as the Elizabethan stage and the times in which he lived and worked. Burgess's obvious ardor for Shakespeare shines through in this short but worthy biography.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (February 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786709723
• ISBN-13: 978-0786709724
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #923,497 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Anthony Burgess (25th February 1917-22nd November 1993) was one of the UK's leading academics and most respected literary figures. A prolific author, during his writing career Burgess found success as a novelist, critic, composer, playwright, screenwriter, travel writer, essayist, poet and librettist, as well as working as a translator, broadcaster, linguist and educationalist. His fiction also includes NOTHING LIKE THE SUN, a recreation of Shakespeare's love-life, but he is perhaps most famous for the complex and controversial novel A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, exploring the nature of evil. Born in Manchester, he spent time living in Southeast Asia, the USA and Mediterranean Europe as well as in England, until his death in 1993.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully insightful book!, May 13, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Shakespeare (Paperback)

The late, great Anthony Burgess shares one of the loves of his life--the works of Shakespeare--with the reader, not by providing close analysis of the literature itself (many fine books that do so are already available, as the author points out in his opening paragraphs), but by giving the reader a solid background on the Elizabethan era: on the major political figures, the intrigues, English preoccupations both domestic and abroad, a history of the theater, Shakespeare's contemporaries including Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson, and speculation about the life of Shakespeare himself. The information is surprising and fascinating. In the best chapter in the book, Burgess brilliantly imagines the first stage production of _Hamlet_. Likely named for Shakespeare's tragically short-lived son Hamnet, the play features Shakespeare's friend Richard Burbage in the title role. When Polonius tells Hamlet how he was once a player in his youth, and was "killed in the Capitol", acting as Julius Caesar, Hamlet remarks how one could kill "so capital a calf". Burgess reveals the joke shared by the actors and their Elizabethan audience: that in previous weeks, the actor who plays Polonius in the current production probably played the title role in Shakespeare's _Julius Caesar_. Mr. Burgess also shows the parallels between the Histories and the current political concerns of the time: Henry V is also a commentary on the rise to power of the Earl of Essex, almost overtly stated by the Chorus in the beginning. Shakespeare's fellow playwrights and actors also figure in his lines. Buried in a play are the words, "It strikes a man more dead/Than a great reckoning in a little room," clearly a reference to the death of Marlowe. By tracing the artistic development and clarifying the backdrop of Elizabethan politics and history, Burgess's brilliant book will illuminate the plays and poems, generousl providing with much loving detail and attention to the reader a far greater understanding and appreciation--and inspiring a greater love--of Shakespeare.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shakespeare can be thrilling, February 12, 2003

By 

Irina Iacobescu (Dubai, UAE) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shakespeare (Paperback)

I have to admit that I was not such a big fan of Shakespeare, before reading Mr. Burgess book. I had only the information I got in school, where most of the things we learn are dry and not interesting at all. Well, this biography has nothing to do with it. Its full of history, literary analysis, facts about Shakespare's private life, England at that time, all written with a lot of common sense, a great and intelligent sense of humour. If you dont like Shakespeare or if you think he is not such a big deal, read this book, and I promise you, you will want to read again all his works and see them in a different light.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fresh and Engaging, January 17, 2004

By 

richard_t "richard_t" (Overseas) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Shakespeare (Paperback)

Anthony Burgess, perhaps best known as author of "A Clockwork Orange", wrote this engaging biography of Shakespeare in 1970. As more than one critic has noted, all the Shakespeare biographies that have come out over the centuries are bound by one common thread: they all must work from the same finite set of information. Much is known about Shakespeare, but much is not known. And what is known grows no larger. We know a bit about his Stratford origins, his move to London, his life and business, and his brief retirement back home. And of course, we have Shakespeare's writings. Or as Burgess puts it, "Infuriatingly, whenever Shakespeare does something other than buy a lease or write a play, history shuts her jaws with a snap."

The challenge to a biographer is to present the material in such a way as to be informative to those who've never read a biography, interesting to those who have, and true to the set of known facts. Burgess meets the challenge and then some -- Burgess was, of course, a fine writer, and he was also an erudite scholar and a fan, though a sharp-eyed one, of his subject. Careful to qualify his guesswork, he jumps to many credible and a few incredible though amusing conclusions --for example about Shakespeare's family and home life-- that set a fertile context for the known facts. Burgess has done his homework on the royals and nobles in Britain, describing the climate change after Elizabeth's death, Southampton's eclipse and Essex's treason. He has read the contemporaries, Marlow and Jonson and Philip Sidney (who wrote of writer's block: "Thus, great with child to speak, and helpless in my throes, Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite; 'Fool,' said my Muse to me, 'look in the heart, and write.'")

The analysis of the plays is strong (particularly the flesh vs. gold themes in "Merchant", not new yet well put). And the final lines are wonderful, the Shakespeare-as-us theme written so as to leave us with a smile. Burgess was a true writer, and his biography of Shakespeare has the virtue of being fresh and witty and insightful, it stands out from the others.