The Life of the Author: William Shakespeare - by Anna Beer (Paperback)
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<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Book </b></p></br></br>"Before conjuring up an April 1564 christening in Holy Trinity Parish Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, the traditional starting point for a biography, a few words about my own ambivalence about writing Shakespeare's life. By all means, move straight to the baptismal register in Chapter One, or if it is the plays, and only the plays, that interest you, then head to Chapter Two when William Shakespeare begins his career as a dramatist. But, if the biographical project itself interests you - and it fascinates me almost but not quite as much as the plays themselves - then stay with this Prologue in which, inspired and provoked by Dutton's wry comment, I explore what happens when we, when I, attempt the impossible. Smith offers a powerful reminder of what's at stake. 'Shakespeare's stock is so high that to recruit him to your ideological team is a real coup.' Suddenly having the man on our team, not just his writing, becomes important. We feel the need to recruit the author himself, not just his works. This may be why biographies should still be attempted. Yes, any and all biographies are fictions, but the lives they tell were not. Our picture of Shakespeare the man is, in the end, created by the questions we ask of the archive we have, by the value we place on different kinds of documentation: those questions and values have, for centuries, been predominantly driven and informed by elite, white men. We need different eyes looking at Shakespeare. His plays matter to us, but what we write about the man matters too"--<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br><p><b>Discover an invigorating new perspective on the life and work of William Shakespeare </b> </p> <p><i>The </i><i>Life of the Author: William Shakespeare</i> delivers a fresh and exciting new take on the life of William Shakespeare, offering readers a biography that brings to the foreground his working life as a poet, playwright, and actor. It also explores the nature of his relationships with his friends, colleagues, and family, and asks important questions about the stories we tell about Shakespeare based on the evidence we actually have about the man himself. </p> <p>The book is written using scholarly citations and references, but with an approachable style suitable for readers with little or no background knowledge of Shakespeare or the era in which he lived. <i>The</i> <i>Life of the Author: William Shakespeare</i> asks provocative questions about the playwright-poet's preoccupation with gender roles and sexuality, and explores why it is so challenging to ascertain his political and religious allegiances. Conservative or radical? Misogynist or proto-feminist? A lover of men or women or both? Patriot or xenophobe? This introduction to Shakespeare's life and works offers no simple answers, but recognizes a man intensely responsive to the world around him, a playwright willing and able to collaborate with others and able to collaborate with others, and, of course, his exceptional, perhaps unique, contribution to literature in English. </p> <p>The book covers the entirety of William Shakespeare's life (1564-1616), taking him from his childhood in Stratford-upon-Avon to his success in the theatre world of London and then back to his home town and comfortable retirement. <i>The Life of the Author: William Shakespeare</i> sets his achievement as a writer within the dangerous, vibrant cultural world that was Elizabethan and Jacobean England, revealing a writer's life of frequent collaboration, occasional crisis, but always of profound creativity. </p> <p>Perfect for undergraduate students in Literature, Drama, Theatre Studies, History, and Cultural Studies courses, <i>The</i> <i>Life of the Author: William Shakespeare</i> will also earn a place in the libraries of students interested in Gender Studies and Creative Writing. </p><p/><br></br><p><b> About the Author </b></p></br></br><p><b>Anna Beer, </b> Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College, University of Oxford is a cross-disciplinary author and researcher with a focus on literature, history, music, and creative writing. She is the author of several biographies, including <i>John Milton: Poet, Pamphleteer and Patriot</i> and <i>Sounds and Sweet Airs: The Forgotten Women of Classical Music</i>.</p>
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