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This short biography of William Shakespeare by world famous writer Bill Bryson brims with the author's inimitable wit and intelligence. Shakespeare's life, despite the scrutiny of generations of biographers and scholars, is still a thicket of myths and traditions, some preposterous, some conflicting, arranged around the few scant facts known about the Bard -- from his birth in Stratford to the bequest of his second best bed to his wife when he died. Following his international bestsellers 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' and 'The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid', Bill Bryson has written a short biography of William Shakespeare for the Eminent Lives series -- which seeks to pair great subjects with writers known for their strong sensibilities and sharp, lively points of view.
专业书评
From Publishers Weekly
Considering the hundreds of thousands of words that have been written about Shakespeare, relatively little is known about the man himself. In the absence of much documentation about his life, we have the plays and poetry he wrote. In this addition to the Eminent Lives series, bestselling author Bryson (The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid) does what he does best: marshaling the usual little facts that others might overlookfor example, that in Shakespeare's day perhaps 40% of women were pregnant when they got marriedto paint a portrait of the world in which the Bard lived and prospered. Bryson's curiosity serves him well, as he delves into subjects as diverse as the reliability of the extant images of Shakespeare, a brief history of the theater in England and the continuing debates about whether William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon really wrote Shakespeare's works. Bryson is a pleasant and funny guide to a subject at once overexposed and elusiveas Bryson puts it, he is a kind of literary equivalent of an electronforever there and not there. (Nov.)
Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From AudioFile
Little is known about Shakespeares life, and in this brief biography Bryson makes no attempt to expand on the known details, as other authors have. Starting by presenting the paucity of facts, he goes on to sketch the life of the worlds greatest playwright, from Stratford to London and back again. He also discusses the theories suggesting that Shakespeares works were written by someone else, dismissing them as ludicrous. While Brysons prose sparkles with Bard-worthy wit, his reading is lackluster, and this reviewer wonders why he doesnt entrust his audiobooks to more experienced narrators. This is an interesting, though brief, book about the Bard, and it deserves better.K.M. AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine--This text refers to the Audio CD edition. 媒体推荐
Time Out
'A joy from first to last...An accessible, exhilarating biography that's shot through with Bryson's trademark humour and irreverence ...Tremendous.'
Irish Times
'Bryson's short biography is about as enjoyable as history books get. Bryson brings his trademark wit to a complex subject.'
TLS
'Less a biography than a delightful account of Shakespeare's elusiveness...The pairing of Bryson with Shakespeare is a happy one.'
Financial Times
'A warm and funny guide through the whole complicated morass of Shakespearean scholarship.'
Sunday Times
'[A] fast paced jaunt through Bardolatry...wittily evokes Elizabethan England.'
Daily Express
'A work worthy of one of the greatest writers in the English language.'
Waterstone's Books Quarterly
'Information and wit in spades...this book is a fine addition to the canon of biographies.'
Independent
`The nation's favourite living writer shrewdly sieves out the likely form the outlandish...'
Independent on Sunday
Alastair Campbell's `favourite book this year' 作者简介
Bill Bryson's many books include, most recently `The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid' as well as `A Short History of Nearly Everything`, `I'm a Stranger Here Myself', `A walk in the Woods', `Neither Here Nor There', `Made in America', and `Notes from a Small Island'. He edited `The Best American Travel Writing 2000'. Born in Des Moines, he now lives in Norfolk with his wife and four children.
| 出版社 | HarperPerennial |
|---|---|
| 作者 | Bill Bryson |