Shakespeare

by Burgess, Anthony

• ISBN13: 9780786709724
• ISBN10: 0786709723
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-01-17
• Publisher: Da Capo Press

Summary

Like Burgess's early novel, Nothing Like the Sun: A Story of Shakespeare's Love-Life, this equally delightful factual treatment of what we know of the Bard combines Burgess's stimulating erudition and his well-informed imagination. The result is at once a speculative biography, a theatrical history, and a re-creation of the Elizabethan age. Whether a vivid retracing of the evolution Elizabethan theater, a bravura reconstruction of the first performance of Hamlet, an infiltration of the intricacies of the court of the Virgin Queen, or an elegy on the era's end with the distrastrous Essex Rebellion, Burgess -- author of the classic A Clockwork Orange -- sets the stage for England's most glorious time and turns the spotlight on the figure of William Shakespeare. "Animated by affection and an understanding of the creative imagination that only a creative writer can bring to bear."Atlantic Monthly "A smooth-flowing narrative, often enlivened by Anthony Burgess's Joycean appetite for linguistic fantasy."Economist "Bright, racy...knowledgeable and humorous, alternately sensible and quirky."Terry Eagleton, Commonweal "Burgess's wonderfully well-stocked mind and essentially wayward spirits are just right for summoning up an apparition of the Bard...."Daily Telegraph

Author Biography

Kiernan Ryan is Professor of English Language and Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London, and a Fellow of New Hall, University of Cambridge.

Table of Contents

Foreword	9	(4)
Prologue	13	(4)
Home	17	(11)
School	28	(14)
Work, Play	42	(9)
Marriage	51	(14)
London	65	(8)
Drama	73	(9)
Shakescene	82	(15)
Patron	97	(11)
Friend	108	(12)
Mistress	120	(12)
Gentleman	132	(10)
Globe	142	(12)
Poets' War	154	(13)
Rebellion	167	(9)
Royal Deaths	176	(10)
VI & I	186	(9)
Sick World	195	(13)
New Place	208	(10)
Swansong	218	(11)
Will	229	(10)
Index	239