Friday, November 09, 2012

Will in the World

Will in the World attempts to be an "accessible" biography of William Shakespeare. It does a fairly good job at it. However, it becomes more tedious as the book progresses.

Shakespeare is portrayed as a fairly ordinary guy who grey up in Elizabethan England. His family would probably be considered "upper middle class", but they may have encountered some hard times. Out of this, Shakespeare managed to learn to read, married young, and then went off to be an actor and a playwright. He had some success in his life, and was able to retire in his home town.

There are some details about his life here. However, there is not quite enough to make "Will" come alive. He seems to be a recluse that valued his privacy. Even this attempt at making him a real person, still feels like an academic biography.

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