The Shakespeare Wars: Clashing Scholars, Public Fiascoes, Palace Coups (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Acclaimed journalist Rosenbaum, New York Observer columnist and cultural omnivore (Explaining Hitler), conveys the impassioned arguments of leading directors and scholars concerning how Shakespeare should be printed and performed. "Hearing Sir Peter Hall pound his fists in fury over the vital importance of a pause at the close of a pentameter line, for instance—wonderful!" Rosenbaum enthuses. Elsewhere he recalls how seeing Peter Brook's definitive 1970 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream inspired Rosenbaum's "outsider's odyssey into the innermost citadels of scholarship" to investigate the painstaking work of Shakespearean textual experts as they convert the Bard's earliest published works into authoritative editions. Evoking the clashing methodologies and discourses of scholars, the dizzying depths of lexicographic databases and a rare instance of Shakespeare's voice transcribed in a court proceeding, Rosenbaum captures with clarity and wry humor the obsessive fervor, theoretical about-turns and occasional scholarly fiasco that characterize this arcane world. He considers the politics of portraying Shylock and Falstaff, appraises Shakespeare on film and provocatively comments on the work of such influential critics as Harold Bloom, Stephen Greenblatt and Stephen Booth. Balancing academic reportage with his own lively observations, Rosenbaum wrestles with the weightiest issues of Shakespeare studies in a down-to-earth manner that readers will applaud. (Sept. 26)
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From Bookmarks Magazine

Ron Rosenbaum, whose analysis in Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of Evil (1998) was well received, is a journalist by trade and a Shakespeare enthusiast by calling. In The Shakespeare Wars, the author articulates to a well-read lay audience his passion for the work and describes the internecine squabbling that often characterizes Shakespeare studies. In so doing, Rosenbaum comes up against a few obstacles, not the least his lengthy meditations on issues that may strike the reader as unworthy of the space devoted to them. Even the critics who admire the author's passion and his knowledge of the subject agree that the book is longer than it needs to be. If you are as captivated by Shakespeare as the author, however, join a kindred spirit in celebrating the Bard.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 624 pages
• Publisher: Random House; First Edition. 1 in number line edition (September 19, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375503390
• ISBN-13: 978-0375503399
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #227,581 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

76 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In love with Shakespeare, October 8, 2006

By	Jim Coughenour (San Francisco) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a volume of gustatory delights -- a book you pick up on impulse and end up devouring with your meals (my copy is spotted with olive oil and specks of latte foam). Rosenbaum has written an autobiography of his obsession with Shakespeare, triggered by a conversion experience when he saw a 1970 Peter Brooks production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. One hears a bit too often about his precious handful of epiphanies, and Rosenbaum (like Harold Bloom, whom he castigates) can easily be faulted for his enthusiasm, but there's no doubt that he brings a host of seemingly desiccated academic controversies to life. Until last week I had no idea there were two versions of Lear or three versions of Hamlet, or that I could be made to care about Shakespeare's original spelling enough to order every play I could find edited by John Andrews.

In fact, reading Rosenbaum turned out to be an expensive experience. Thanks to his infectious interest and spirited recommendations (I'm tempted to say the book is worth having for its Bibliographic Notes), I've purchased Stephen Booth's old edition of the Sonnets, Ann Thompson's new edition of Hamlet, and Russ McDonald's Shakespeare and the Arts of Language -- and that was only the beginning of a ruinous week on Amazon. Rosenbaum also makes a strong case for republishing out-of-print classics such as Empson's Milton's God and Booth's Essay on Shakespeare's Sonnets; I hope someone's listening.

So I award Shakespeare Wars five stars for enthusiasm -- not only its author's but that which it excites in readers like me, who generally skip those bulky Arden introductions. (Now I'll read them with gratitude.) It didn't hurt, either, that Rosenbaum champions prejudices I share: that academics besotted with Theory are like color-blind art critics; that Shylock should not be sanitized; and that Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet is spectacular, in no small part because of Harold Perrineau's Mercutio. And it's in reference to Mercutio that Rosenbaum makes one of his many excellent equations: "Mercutio as Marlowe." That's the kind of connection that sends a spark racing across the imagination and leaves its readers smiling.

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fun read for everyone (scholar or not), November 27, 2006

By	Polymath-In-Training (Olive Branch, MS United States) - See all my reviews

First the downside. The way the author writes. In incomplete sentences. Frequently. Like the journalist he is.

Putting that irritating habit aside, the author gives an inside look at the disagreements among Shakespearean scholars, and those agreements are many and varied. He includes enough introduction and background information that average readers, like me, can understand the issue and hand. The author, who is both a journalist and a literature scholar, writes an interesting series of stories. Through interviews with some of the world's top Shakespearean researchers, he sifts through all the dross and provides a definite opinion on most topics. He writes about topics that much of the public will be familiar with, and he writes about many that I've never heard of.

Best of all, this book has spurred me to read a few of Shakespeare's plays, watch films of some of the plays, and read his sonnets.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Page turning academic criticism--very rare, January 21, 2007

By	Federico (Fred) Moramarco (San Diego,, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Ron Rosenbaum's enthusiasm for Shakespeare as well as his erudition and bottomless curiosity comes across on nearly every page of this very stimulating account of the "state of the art" in Shakespeare studies. It's not at all pedantic, extremely readable and covers everything from various opinions about Shakespeare's handwriting to the question of whether or not he revised his texts. Rosenbaum doesn't just read the criticism, he interviews and probes the scholars holding opposite viewpoints and conveys a sense of the excitment of scholarly discovery. It's accessible to non-specialists, and some chapters are more engaging than others (naturally) but overall it is a an unusually good book on what would seem to be a somewhat estoteric topic, but really isn't.