"As a historian of Elizabethan culture [Rowse] helpfully interrelates Shakespeare the man and his plays and poems with the personalities, the politics, the outstanding events of the age...[Rowse] is very good reading...his authoritarian tone rather bracing after the timidities of most of us in the establishment, always fearful of declaring ourselves." --The New York Times

"A book [which] ought to delight general readers and scholars alike...[Rowse] brings historical perspective to the usual account of Shakespeare as Stratfor boy and London actor...bold authority becomes daring speculation as the historian sweeps through the sonnets with a new theory." --Library Journal

"[Rowse] describes the rich background of Shakespeare's life and works. He dismisses the notion that little is known about Shakespeare but show him a very 'much a reading man', traveling frequently between London and Stratford. Rowse's Shakespeare is untroubled by the mental strain and dilemmas that vex his dramatic characters. This is no psychological study but a straightforward historical narrative. We should be grateful that he, it seems, has rescued the Dark Lady from her literary limbo." --Christian Science Monitor

"This book is certainly enjoyably good reading." --Economist

"Tone and substance suggest that Dr. Rowse is casting is net to capture a...popular kind of readership...he has the touch...a new and controversial thesis." --Times (of London) Literary Supplement