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Shakespeare Anthony Burgess 9780099599111 Books

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Shakespeare Anthony Burgess 9780099599111 Books

Anthony Burgess, perhaps best known as author of "A Clockwork Orange", wrote this engaging biography of Shakespeare in 1970. As more than one critic has noted, all the Shakespeare biographies that have come out over the centuries are bound by one common thread: they all must work from the same finite set of information. Much is known about Shakespeare, but much is not known. And what is known grows no larger. We know a bit about his Stratford origins, his move to London, his life and business, and his brief retirement back home. And of course, we have Shakespeare's writings. Or as Burgess puts it, "Infuriatingly, whenever Shakespeare does something other than buy a lease or write a play, history shuts her jaws with a snap."
The challenge to a biographer is to present the material in such a way as to be informative to those who've never read a biography, interesting to those who have, and true to the set of known facts. Burgess meets the challenge and then some -- Burgess was, of course, a fine writer, and he was also an erudite scholar and a fan, though a sharp-eyed one, of his subject. Careful to qualify his guesswork, he jumps to many credible and a few incredible though amusing conclusions --for example about Shakespeare's family and home life-- that set a fertile context for the known facts. Burgess has done his homework on the royals and nobles in Britain, describing the climate change after Elizabeth's death, Southampton's eclipse and Essex's treason. He has read the contemporaries, Marlow and Jonson and Philip Sidney (who wrote of writer's block: "Thus, great with child to speak, and helpless in my throes, Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite; 'Fool,' said my Muse to me, 'look in the heart, and write.'")
The analysis of the plays is strong (particularly the flesh vs. gold themes in "Merchant", not new yet well put). And the final lines are wonderful, the Shakespeare-as-us theme written so as to leave us with a smile. Burgess was a true writer, and his biography of Shakespeare has the virtue of being fresh and witty and insightful, it stands out from the others.


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Shakespeare Anthony Burgess 9780099599111 Books Reviews

I have the hardback edition that came out in 1970. It is what some people call a "coffee table book", but it never spends much time on MY coffee table.

Full of color portraits of the major players, some modern photos of Stratford, this is a view of Shakespeare through Burgess' Eyes...and that means a very fascinating journey, full of facts, his opinions, his wonderful writing style, humor, and intelligence.

He takes care of those who don't think Shakespeare wrote the plays within the scope of one page, as only a REAL writer could. Even his captions for the pictures are worth reading (Marlowe "His death in 1593 left Shakespeare without equal as a dramatic poet")...His description of Henslowe is hilarious, his comparison between the genius' of Marlowe and Shakespeare very though provoking, and his portrait of Shakespeare the man and what he might have been thinking at different points in his life, e.g., after the Globe burned down, he thinks Shakespeare thought it was time to go home to Stratford as he had given so many years to that theater...

I do not like, however, his disparaging account of Ann Shakespeare, as many male authors do, despite the lack of evidence about how he felt about her, with the misunderstanding about the second best bed, even though by law, Anne would be receiving one-third of his estate, and had been staying with Susanna and her husband at New Place. Anne wanted to be buried next to him, so we at least know how she felt about him. Many women married at 26 (Shakespeare's daughter, Judith, married at an even later date), and the Hathaway's were a well off family, while John Shakespeare was in a lot of financial trouble. And we will never know who seduced who, or it was an arranged marriage (they certainly know each other for many years), or, as I like to think, they always had a liking for each other...

He mentions some passages about Shakespeare that you will rarely find anywhere, like when Shakespeare's company was performing in the country at an estate, and supposedly a letter said that "We have the man Shakespeare here"...

The final Chapter about his death after his short retirement is unforgettable. His final paragraph about that we should not mourn the fact that we do not have a satisfactory painting of Shakespeare, is Burgess at his best

"To see his face, we need only look in a mirror. He is ourselves, ordinary suffering humanity, fired by modest ambitions, concerned with money, the victim of desire, all too mortal. To his back, like a hump, was strapped a miraculous, but somehow irrelevant, talent. It is a talent which, more than any other that the world has seen, reconcile us to being human beings, unsatisfactory hybrids, not good enough for gods and not good enough for animals. We are all Will. Shakespeare is the name of one of our redeemers."

Amen. No one has said it better.
I found the text meandering, difficult to follow, and not engaging. I thought I'd get interested because I like history and literature, but this book didn't do it for me.
This is an excellent additional reference on Shakespeare. Not your usual text - but text-book like it is. Well written with an insider's voice. Great for those who consider themselves knowledgeable about Shakespeare and well versed in his work. Not so great for those who want to learn more and to have a larger context for interpreting Shakespeare's prolific and diverse output. Burgess has a presumptive attitude about what readers SHOULD know from the start.
Anthony Burgess gets William Shakespeare and so will you if you read this fascinating book. It is wonderful throughout. Enjoy!
Anthony Burgess, perhaps best known as author of "A Clockwork Orange", wrote this engaging biography of Shakespeare in 1970. As more than one critic has noted, all the Shakespeare biographies that have come out over the centuries are bound by one common thread they all must work from the same finite set of information. Much is known about Shakespeare, but much is not known. And what is known grows no larger. We know a bit about his Stratford origins, his move to London, his life and business, and his brief retirement back home. And of course, we have Shakespeare's writings. Or as Burgess puts it, "Infuriatingly, whenever Shakespeare does something other than buy a lease or write a play, history shuts her jaws with a snap."
The challenge to a biographer is to present the material in such a way as to be informative to those who've never read a biography, interesting to those who have, and true to the set of known facts. Burgess meets the challenge and then some -- Burgess was, of course, a fine writer, and he was also an erudite scholar and a fan, though a sharp-eyed one, of his subject. Careful to qualify his guesswork, he jumps to many credible and a few incredible though amusing conclusions --for example about Shakespeare's family and home life-- that set a fertile context for the known facts. Burgess has done his homework on the royals and nobles in Britain, describing the climate change after Elizabeth's death, Southampton's eclipse and Essex's treason. He has read the contemporaries, Marlow and Jonson and Philip Sidney (who wrote of writer's block "Thus, great with child to speak, and helpless in my throes, Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite; 'Fool,' said my Muse to me, 'look in the heart, and write.'")
The analysis of the plays is strong (particularly the flesh vs. gold themes in "Merchant", not new yet well put). And the final lines are wonderful, the Shakespeare-as-us theme written so as to leave us with a smile. Burgess was a true writer, and his biography of Shakespeare has the virtue of being fresh and witty and insightful, it stands out from the others.