S. Schoenbaum

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When S. Schoenbaum's Shakespeare's Lives first appeared over twenty years ago, critics enthusiastically hailed it as a triumph of wit and scholarship. Stanley Wells, the editor of Shakespeare's complete works, called it "an extraordinary achievement....fluent, vivid, and intelligent."
Writing in the Saturday Review, Benjamin DeMott described Shakespeare's Lives as "a superbly informed, elegantly composed, intensely readable book," while Terry Eagleton remarked on its "shrewd intelligence." Schoenbaum's study of the changing images of Shakespeare throughout history broke
important new ground; but in the years since this book first appeared many scholars have followed his lead, and Shakespeare studies has progressed by leaps and bounds. Now, Schoenbaum, one of "the heroes of Shakespeare scholarship," according to Wells, has revised and up-dated this classic study of
Shakespeare and his biographers, taking account of the most recent scholarship, adding a chapter on "Recent Lives," and abridging certain sections.
Schoenbaum takes us on a tour of the countless myths and legends which have arisen to explain the great dramatist's life and work, bringing the story right up to 1989 with the publication of A.L. Rowse's Discovering Shakespeare. In the new edition, the emphasis is on more recent "lives" of
Shakespeare, with information culled from such diverse sources as E.A.J. Honigmann's Shakespeare: The "Lost Years" and Richard Ellmann's Oscar Wilde (Wilde's Portrait of Mr W.H. advanced his theory of the Sonnets in fictional form). Besides fanciful theories such as Wilde's, Schoenbaum covers
those who have used blatant forgery to construct an imaginary Shakespeare, such as W.H. Ireland and J.P. Collier (the latter would occasionally add his own verse to the Shakespeare canon), and those who have attempted elaborate argumentation to establish the identity of Shakespearean characters
(A.L. Rowse claimed to have identified the elusive "Dark Lady" of the Sonnets). From Ben Jonson, whose celebratory verse opens the First Folio of Shakespeare's complete works (published seven years after his death), to Malcolm X, who denied the existence of a historical Shakespeare, Shakespeare's
Lives considers virtually the entire legacy of idolatry, heresy, and speculation.
As before, Schoenbaum submits the documentary record of Shakespeare's life to careful consideration. Like a literary detective, he reconstructs as much of the elusive author's life as possible, considering his family history, his economic standing, and his reputation with his peers. The
Shakespeare who emerges may not always be the familiar one (he was less vaunted by his contemporaries than we usually believe, for example), but all of Schoenbaum's claims are exquisitely documented.
Even in this revised and abridged version, Schoenbaum's narrative leaves hardly a stone unturned--from Samuel Johnson, Samuel Coleridge, and Alexander Pope to twentieth-century writers like James Joyce, E.K. Chambers, and Anthony Burgess (whose popular life of Shakespeare appeared the same year
as the first edition of Schoenbaum's book). Curiousity about Shakespeare has not subsided since the original version of this classic appeared. This new edition will make the latest lives of Shakespeare available to a whole new generation of the Bard's fanatical followers.


Shakespeare's Lives

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#hardcover #biography #shakespeare #shakespeareslives #schoenbaum 

Massachusetts

Fascination with the life of the author has remained a constant in Shakespeare studies, as the recent spate of biographies and books on the authorship question makes clear. Who was William Shakespeare? What can we know about him for certain? Should we be looking at this fellow Shakespeare at all? First published in 1970, and thoroughly revised and updated in 1991, Shakespeare's Lives remains the most celebrated history of the quest for Shakespeare the man. The product of more than three decades' research, it is an unparalleled account of the critics and crackpots who have explored¿or fancifully imagined¿the life of our greatest writer. Uniquely qualified for this task by virtue of his wide scholarship, incisive mind, and lively wit, Schoenbaum takes us on a 400-year journey through a multiplicity of "Shakespeares." He begins with the Shakespeare of documentary record¿poet of the London stage and prosperous citizen of Stratford¿then turns to the Shakespeare of legend¿deer poacher, beer guzzler, and impetuous lover. Other Shakespeares follow. The playwright appears as protagonist in a host of popular and scholarly biographies, which often reveal more about the biographer than his subject. Then there's the Shakespeare for whom an imaginary history was invented through forged documents. Finally, there's the Shakespeare who never was¿mere "front man" in a vast and frequently eccentric literature crediting his works to such luminaries as Sir Francis Bacon, Edward de Vere (the Earl of Oxford), and Christopher Marlowe. How the various documents, clues, and legends were unearthed plays a key role in this astonishing story, as do the controversial painted portraits. Schoenbaum delves into some of the many attempts to reconstruct Shakespeare's life from his writings (Shakespeare as lawyer, soldier, or diplomat), several of the intricate and bizarre cryptographical analyses applied to the canon itself, and even spiritualists' claims to have communicated with his ghost. Shakespeare's Lives, then, is a book of many lives, described and lived, during the course of more than four centuries. It is enriched by the appearances of such literary notables as Samuel Johnson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Oscar Wilde, Sigmund Freud, and James Joyce, as well as by such exacting scholars as Edmond Malone and E. K. Chambers. Seen through a succession of different eyes and shifting vantage-points, the figure of the playwright nevertheless emerges from the mists of misconception. This reissue includes a foreword by Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Michael Dirda.

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Est. Publication Date - Oct 1991

Shakespeare's Lives

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More copies of this book

This copy is sold, but you can find more here!

Category - Non Fiction / Biography & Autobiography

Format - Hardcover

Condition - Fair

Listed - 4 months ago

Views - 1

Est. Publication Date - Oct 1991

Shakespeare's Lives

ISBN: 9780198186182

Publisher Description

Shakespeare's Lives

By:

$10.00

Meet the seller

Discover more

Shakespeare's Lives

By: S. Schoenbaum

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