Customer Reviews

Shakespeare's Imitations

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As an open partisan of Mark Taylor's scholarhip, I was delighted to find that he has outdone himself in SHAKESPEARE'S IMITATIONS. His prose sparkles with a bravura wit truly inspired by the verbal and structural play of Shakespeare's own invention. SHAKESPEARE IMITATIONS tackles the best of the best: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, HENRY IV, PART 1, HAMLET, and THE TEMPEST. With great yet unassuming erudition and with an unflagging perceptiveness, Taylor pursues the kaleidoscopic question of Shakespeare's mirrorings of antiquity, of contemporary literature, and of his own creations. Even on the rare occasions when I find myself disagreeing with him, Taylor's arguments compel a re-thinking of these four great plays and a renewed appreciation of the infinite capacity of Shakespeare's (to say nothing of Taylor's) imagination.

Andre Gide's concept of the mise en abyme which has become a wide-ranging and controversial tool in literary understanding is deftly applied here by Mark Taylor to four of Shakespeare's most complex plays. Although the theoretical background is French and thus somewhat elliptical in expression, Taylor's prose is fresh, clear, and a pleasure to read. Difficult matter gracefully communicated.