A year in the life of anyone will range from being exceptionally busy to remaining in a rather long slumber. So, what did Shakespeare do in 1599? Well, how about write Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It and, well, let's mention Hamlet as well. How long would it take most people just to copy those plays out, in a quill pen, without electricity?

James Shapiro’s book is many things. It is part biography, part history, part analysis and part speculation. Early in his book he writes at one point “we just don’t know.” I like that, when an acknowledged expert joins with his inquiring readers to show that his knowledge and his wonder have come up short.

That said, Shapiro is a scholar of the first rank. His range of knowledge and inquiry in this book has both depth and breadth. I admit that at times I became lost in his forest of facts and observations. That’s my confession.

If William Shakespeare is a person you would like to understand more, marvel at more, and appreciate as a major figure in literature this book needs to be read.

We have scant historical sources on Shakespeare's life, but Shapiro is able to hold up two mirrors facing each other, the text of the plays, and the historical events of 1599. From the infinity between these mirrors, he gives shape to Shakespeare's life during the course of that year.

One of the strongest sections in the book describes the creation of the Globe Theater. Shakespeare had formed a partnership with London's top stage talent to build and operate their own theater. Shapiro speculates quite effectively about the impact that this freedom and sense of ownership may have had on Shakespeare as he writes a magnificent series of plays in 1599.

These plays were Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and Hamlet. Shapiro uses a familiar technique for literary analysis, called “close reading,” in which we assume it is possible to find the author's psyche in the text itself, including the subject matter, conflicts, and even specific words and phrases.

What makes this book really shine is the way that Shapiro links literary analysis with historical events. Key events in 1599 include a renewed invasion of Ireland, censorship crackdowns on free expression, suppression of the knightly class, anxiety about Elizabeth's succession, and paranoid preparation for a Spanish invasion.

If you're a Shakespeare fan I would HIGHLY recommend this book. It is an entertaining and extremely informative book about a year in the life of the finest writer in the English language. The year Mr. Shapiro analyzes is 1599 in which Shakespeare wrote four plays, including HAMLET. It was a volatile year in England, filled with rebellions and political intrigue, and Shakespeare drew on all of that turmoil to write his plays. Mr. Shapiro does a wonderful job of showing the linkage between what was happening around Shakespeare and the stories and characters that ended up in his plays. The amount of detail is excellent, and Mr. Shapiro has a knack for making you feel like you're living through those events yourself. This is an especially good read for aspiring writers, as it dispels the myth that writing came easy to Shakespeare, and shows how much WORK went into his plays.

I've read several books on the Bard, but this is my favorite so far, and I would highly recommend you read it.

Truly an excellent, in-depth look at the year 1599 in Elizabethan England. We see the Bard working on Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It and Hamlet as the Globe Theater rises from the ground. The Queen’s lover Essex makes an ill-fated invasion of rebellious Ireland as the old modes of chivalry and codes of honor begin to crumble. Painted with an even hand between history and textual analysis, Shapiro does an outstanding job of getting behind the curtains and trying to reveal to us a Shakespeare firmly rooted in his own times of turmoil and censorship. A must read for fans of theatre and history.

Fino's Reviews of Shakespeare and Shakespearean Criticism
Comedies
The Comedy of Errors (1592-1593
The Taming of the Shrew (1593-1594)
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1594-1595)
Love's Labour's Lost (1594-1595)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595-1596)
The Merchant of Venice (1596-1597)
Much Ado About Nothing (1598-1599)
As You Like It (1599-1600)
Twelfth Night (1599-1600)
The Merry Wives of Windsor (1600-1601)
All's Well That Ends Well (1602-1603)
Measure for Measure (1604-1605)
Cymbeline (1609-1610)
A Winter's Tale (1610-1611)
The Tempest (1611-1612)
Two Noble Kinsmen (1612-1613)

Histories
Henry VI Part I (1589-1590)
Henry VI Part II (1590-1591)
Henry VI Part III (1590-1591)
Richard III (1593-1594)
Richard II (1595-1596)
King John (1596-1597)
Edward III (1596-1597)
Henry IV Part I (1597-1598)
Henry IV Part II (1597-1598)
Henry V (1598-1599)
Henry VIII (1612-1612)

Tragedies
Titus Andronicus (1592-1593)
Romeo and Juliet (1594-1595)
Julius Caesar (1599-1600)
Hamlet (1600-1601)
Troilus and Cressida (1601-1602)
Othello (1604-1605)
King Lear (1605-1606)
Macbeth (1605-1606)
Anthony and Cleopatra (1606-1607)
Coriolanus (1607-1608)
Timon of Athens (1607-1608)
Pericles (1608-1609)

Shakespearean Criticism
The Wheel of Fire by Wilson Knight
A Natural Perspective by Northrop Frye
Shakespeare After All by Marjorie Garber
Shakespeare's Roman Plays and Their Background by M W MacCallum
Shakespearean Criticism 1919-1935 compiled by Anne Ridler
Shakespearean Tragedy by A.C. Bradley
Shakespeare's Sexual Comedy by Hugh M. Richmond
Shakespeare: The Comedies by R.P. Draper
Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics by Stephen Greenblatt
1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro

Collections of Shakespeare
Venus and Adonis, the Rape of Lucrece and Other Poems
Shakespeare's Sonnets and a Lover's Complaint
The Complete Oxford Shakespeare

Fascinating combination of history and discussion of Shakespeare's writings. I think I'll read the sequel too.

Shapiro is always a model of clarity and persuasiveness. I wish, wish, wish that more academics tried this hard to write for the intelligent layperson. He provides useful close readings for the four plays from this year (Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, Hamlet), focussing in particular on the ways they come out of a particular historical, political, personal, economic, practical context. But he also models an enormously useful and exciting way of reading. He reminds me that no reading is ever complete; no matter how much we know or understand about a text, our readings of it can only ever be partial. There is just so much we don't know or have no access to--allusions and connections and influences and pressures, personal experiences, ephemeral cultural bits and pieces.

3.5 stars. It was good considering we are so limited on Shakespeare’s personal history. Lots of great info. I felt that ending with excerpts of the plays too random.

I read Shapiro's follow up, "1606", a few years ago and was impressed by how erudite and accessible his description of early Jacobean London, Shakespeare's day to day life and artistry, and matters of state were. Finally, I've read the original , focusing on a pivotal year in which Robert Devereux over-reaches himself and pays the price for his failure to defeat the Tyrone Rebellion. At the same time, England experiences its first 'phoney war' as it prepares for the non-arrival of the 'invisible Armada '.
The impact of both of these events on the acting companies of Bankside, not least the creations of leading playwrights such as Jonson and Shakespeare, are explained admirably by Shapiro. His description of how the writing of Henry V, As you like it and Hamlet were influenced by contemporary events and practicalities is clear and persuasive.
All together, a refreshing and lively recreation of a long lost world!

Earlier this year, an informal book club made of teachers corresponding via email, as well as my community group, each inquired about my current reads. This book the final year of the 16th century (and the first of the Globe) was one of many that sat on my shelf with little slips of paper peeking out from somewhere between the beginning and the end. Without a formal count, I estimate approximately a dozen books lie fallow on my bookshelves. They are not "neglected" or "abandoned." They are simply waiting to bear their fruit.

Now, my goal is to finish those books. Since I borrowed this one from a colleague and the library (two separate copies on two separate shelves), I kept it at the top of the priority list. The chapters about the connection of Julius Caesar with the uneasy political climate at the time and the depth Shakespeare reached with Hamlet's soliloquies were my favorites. Overall, it was fun to read Shapiro's stitching together of history, composition, and biography to speculate on this particular timeframe in the life of The Bard.

Next up: I'm staying in England, fast forwarding three and a half centuries, and reading about the development of Liverpool Football Club from second division team to European power under the guidance of Bill Shankly.

This book wasn't really what I expected. The book title is, in reflection, ambiguous for the book uses 1599 as a fulcrum date and Shakespeare almost as a context. As Shapiro notes early on a true biography of Shakespeare is impossible due to the paucity of contemporary reports on his life. The result is a detective story of inference, context and supposition that seeks to find evidence of Shakespeare's influences and activity.

Shapiro does get sidelined by his 'bromance' with the Earl of Essex at many points but it does help paint a picture of societal change under an aging and increasingy angry Elizabeth I. His masterstroke is in delivering the text as a melee of quotes, extracts of plays and diaries and historical references but leaving most of the sources to the bibliographic section at the end of the book. The result flows with considerable energy, intrigue and controversy. Well worth a read

This book almost reads like a novel.  Whether or not that is a good thing will depend on the extent that you are willing and able to enjoy a mixture of contextual understanding as well as speculation on Shakespeare's writings as well as his times.  It is well known, if lamentable, that Shakespeare's life is not as easy to understand as we might hope.  Quite often the author is left to suppose that Shakespeare heard such and such a message or was not present in a particular play because he was working on another or that he heard a particular sermon because it happened to match what he was saying in a play that was apparently released at the time.  The author also has a lot to say about the way that it is hard to tell the difference between a genuine Shakespeare poem on a bad day and that of a good imitator of Shakespeare on a good day as he discusses the question of which writings were Shakespeare's in "The Passionate Pilgrim," much of which will be of interest to someone who likes Shakespeare and is willing to read about the context of Elizabethan era times in which he wrote.

This book is more than 300 pages long and is divided into fifteen chapters.  After a list of illustrations, preface, and prologue that discuss the author's interest and how he came to be aware of what was going on around Shakespeare in 1599 as well as an incident in late 1598 where Shakespeare's fellow sharers dismantled a theater for reuse, the book takes a mostly chronological as well as topical look at 1599.  The author begins in winter (I) with a discussion of the labor trouble within the Chamberlain's men that led to the loss of Will Kempe (1).  After that the author discusses the failures of England's efforts in Ireland (2), the burial of the poet Spenser in Westminster (3), a nationalistic sermon that sounded like Henry V in Richmond (4), and then looks at Henry V (5).  In looking at the spring (II), the author discusses the building of the Globe Theater (6), the burning of books that bothered the authorities relating to English history (7), and the question of Julius Caesar and the matter of censorship (8), with the assumption it was written around this time.  After that the author discusses the summer (III) of 1599 with a look at the threat of Spanish invasion (9), the publishing of the Passionate Pilgrim (10), a look at As You Like It (11), and a discussion of Shakespeare's relationship to the Forest of Arden (12).  Finally, the book ends with a look at autumn (IV) and a discussion of Essex' failures in Ireland (13), the writing of Hamlet and how it relates to the thinking of obscure Englishmen (14), and Shakespeare's editing of Hamlet (15) before its release, after which there is an epilogue, bibliographical essay, acknowledgements, and an index.

This book is somewhere on the boundary between textual analysis, cultural history, and historical fiction, and that is not necessarily a bad thing.  The author gives a plausible account of 1599 being an important year in Shakespeare's development as a writer in that it provided him with the important raw material that was necessary to push him beyond a comfortable place where he had been to create the masterful works that would follow in the next few years.  Whether or not Shakespeare wrote the plays that the author assumes he did in 1599 or whether this year marked the leap that the author thinks, the book is interesting because it reveals the professional and social context i which Shakespeare wrote.  It discusses the effect of the loss of Will Kemp, Shakespeare's own efforts at social climbing and helping out with his business interests, the troubles in Ireland that were taking place at the time and the threat of Spanish invasion.  And if it is true that Henry V and Hamlet were both written in 1599 it suggests that Shakespeare was moving on from writing English history plays and moving into more psychologically rich material while simultaneously avoiding the jailtime and scrutiny that faced many of his less adroit competitors.  At the very least it makes for a worthwhile story.

I vacillate between giving this book 4 or 5 stars. I ended up giving it 5 due to its novel approach to its subject, and the amount of research involved. However as a text that consistently keeps your interest it is a 4, because I often found myself a little bored, and wishing for the author to get to his next subject.
This text is not a biography of Shakespeare. Rather it is a historical exploration of the year 1599, and the culture of Elizabethan England, and how those aspects of his life and times informed the four plays that Shakespeare probably wrote in that pivotal year in his career. This is a unique and solid way to approach Shakespeare and Mr. Shapiro is certainly well researched and insightful in his observations. This book made me think of many things in Shakespeare in a new way, and that is a great testament to its scope and depth. Mr. Shapiro is very strong in his analysis of how the political and cultural situation in England in 1599 informed Shakespeare's writing of "Henry V", "As You Like it", and "Hamlet". However, he has to reach a little to find much cultural context that is specific to 1599 for "Julius Caesar". Still, the points that he makes about how life in Elizabethan England relate to this Roman story are insightful, and certainly worth exploring.
If you want a text that is in the vein of biographies of Shakespeare, such as "Will in the World", etc I don't think you will like this book. It is a little more History and England than it is Shakespeare, and if you are not a fan of History, and specifically that period, you will not enjoy this read. There are some times where the literary history that Shapiro explores will bore the casual reader.
A different type of text to add to the library of writing on Shakespeare, but a welcome one!