William Shakespeare: An Illustrated Biography

How do you write a review of a biography of Shakespeare? Almost by definition every section starts with; if X happened then surely Y must've followed.

Then we get a number paragraphs or even chapters elaborating on the initial hypothesis. We don't have much to work on Shakespeare and we are unlikely to be able to in the future.

Having said that This biography is a very decent attempt at collating what we know of Shakespeare as well as tieing in the potential experiences of his life to his works.

Worth reading.

For the bare facts of Shakespeare's life I suppose this is good. However, the book left me wondering why Holden hates Shakespeare's wife Anne Hathaway. Considering that we know very little about the marriage some of his conclusions were out there. I don't need a fairy tale marriage described, but it seemed a bit lopsided.

Gives a flavor of Elizabethan times as it relates to Shakespeare, but includes a fair amount of speculation.

He gives some great information and has a really interesting take on the plays. However, there are way too many assumptions made about Shakespeare with little given to support his theories.

I am pretty sure that nearly everybody has heard of William Shakespeare and at some point, have had the opportunity to read this work. From an early age growing up in England, you know who Shakespeare is without even reading his work as he is a celebrated playwright. However, I first read one of William Shakespeare's works for my GCSEs, most of my friends were in other classes reading some of Shakespeare's works such as Romeo & Juliet, Othello or Much Ado About Nothing but I have to say that I was lucky with the text that my class were given; Midsummer's Nights Dream. It is my favourite play from William Shakespeare, I love the plot and all the characters, but even though I knew of Shakespeare's plays, I didn't know much about the man himself! That is exactly what Anthony Holden's biography is teaching me!

I was given this book as a birthday present from one of my best friends. When I opened the wrapping paper and say the book, I was so grateful as she knows of my love and passion for everything to do with history and especially the Tudor era, so I was so happy with receiving this book. However, I began thinking to myself 'I don't know much about William Shakespeare, I know of his plays and he wrote them, but I'm not really interested'.....That all changed since watching Ben Elton's comedy show on William Shakespeare called 'Upstart Crow' featuring David Mitchell as the Bard himself and when I decided to go to Shakespeare's birthplace and hometown of Stratford-Upon-Avon! The book had been on my shelf for over 2 years and it seemed like the right time for me to read about Shakespeare when visiting where he grew up, and it has taught me many things so far!

Anthony Holden's book on William Shakespeare doesn't just look at the man behind the plays, but also the atmosphere and events that may have inspired his plays and his friendship and relationship with key figures in the theatre business and his patrons such as the Earl of Southampton, Elizabeth I and James I.

This book is very informative and detailed, as it has managed to teach me more about the theatre during the Elizabethan Era and has taught me about William himself, and his family life. However, with the book being very detailed, sometimes I feel that the author was talking more about the theatres, Shakespeare's fellow playwrights and actors rather than the subject of the book. Also, I love reading books that detail every section of a historical figures life and actions, but sadly with this book I wasn't really enjoying how much detail was in the book and I found myself (dare I say it....) actually bored, although I must admit I started to enjoy the book and the many fine details by the end of the book.

The book's chapters are structured by the years and what William was doing at the time, for example, 'Childhood 1569-1579' talked about William's childhood, what sorts of things he would have done as a child during the Elizabethan period, such as attending the local school of King Edward VI school, what he would have learnt at school and also attending the local church. The other chapters are as followed; 'Stratford 1564-1569'; 'The Lost Years 1579-1587'; 'London 1587-1592'; 'The Upstart Crow 1592-1594'; 'The Lord Chamberlain's Man 1594-1596'; 'My Absent Child 1596-1599', 'The Globe 1599-1603', 'The King's Man 1603-1606', 'The Antique Roman 1606-1608', 'Blackfriars 1608-1611' and 'A Merry Meeting 1611-1616'. This allowed for the author to be able to talk in detail Shakespeare's life and what plays he wrote during some of those years, and the events and relationships he experienced that would be reflected through themes, characters and scenes throughout his many plays.

Reading the chapter 'My Absent Child' did really move me when the author began talking about the death of Shakespeare's only son and heir, Hamnet. This did make me a tiny bit teary, as I empathised and sympathised with Shakespeare as Hamnet was only 11 years old when he died, but it was interesting as the author explained that Hamnet would haunt and be a constant presence throughout his father's later works. It was also claimed that the play 'Hamlet' would be dedicated to his son, as back in those times 'Hamnet' and 'Hamlet' would have been interchangeable and there were many different ways that one would have spelt their name, so easily would Hamnet be Hamlet.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who would like to know more about one of the most famous playwrights throughout history. This book would also give you more knowledge and insight into the world of theatres and plays during the Elizabethan and Stuart era, which I must say that I never knew before!

A competent biography of the celebrated playwright. Much of the details I already knew. What this book adds is a (slightly speculative) suggestion that Shakespeare was a closet-Catholic in his youth, having lived in a Catholic household in Lancashire during the 'lost years' when he was young. I also hugely enjoyed the very start of chapter one in which Holden roundly trashes the "usually snobbish attempts" to deny that Shakespeare was the author of the plays via conspiracy theories that must assume that Ben Jonson and Robert Greene and Will Kemp and King James I all lied when naming Shakespeare as a playwright/actor/shareholder.

While one can always quibble with anybody about the chronology of the plays (eg the BBC recently put Titus Andronicus first, as a collaboration with George Peele, while Holden gives primacy to Henry VI), this book is a useful reference for sources; it is both scholarly and well written.

A useful addition to the canon.

The author is touted as witty on the book's cover, but I frankly just found the writing a mess. He skips back and forth in time tangents. That makes the story very hard to follow. He also contradicts himself. He puts forth evidence which is solid, granted. It's hard to argue with acutal records. However, he also uses Shakespeare's works to support his theories on one page. Then he basically says we shouldn't read too much into the passages a few chapters later. The subject of Anne Hathaway is treated with an alternatively snide and then patronizing sort of attitude. It was really difficult to read this book. There's no linear storyline, his evidence isn't laid out in a clear way, and the writing is mired in misplaced details that often belong somewhere else. I would not recommend this to anyone.

I expected this to be dull and straightforward, but actually Holden manages to write in a lively and almost entertaining manner. He also has obviously done a huge amount of research as he describes not only the known facts of the life of Shakespeare but has also discovered info about his friends and neighbours who have provided us hints about where and what Shakespeare might have been and done in a certain year. In addition, he provides us a lot of information about Shakespeare's family and what happened after his death or before his birth. He makes deductions based on Shakespeare's works, but does also make an effort to not draw conclusions that would be unbelievable or based on too small pieces of evidence.

I recommend this to all who are doing research on Shakespeare's life and his works that are widely analyzed in this book.