A magnificent achievement.

Dazzling and subtle.

So engrossing, clearheaded, and lucid that its arrival is not just welcome but cause for celebration.

Vividly written, richly detailed, and insightful from first chapter to last . . . certain to secure a place among the essential studies of the greatest of all writers.

Greenblatt takes the bits we do know, nourishes them with a thorough understanding of the Elizabethan world Shakespeare inhabited, and then coaxes each bud of information to flower within our understanding of the plays.... Only a churl would be unpersuaded by it.

An exceptionally well-told tale, an engrossing page-turner, in fact.

The most complexly intelligent and sophisticated, and yet the most keenly enthusiastic, study of the life and work taken together that I have ever read.

Greenblatt's revelatory book pays tribute to the glorious democracy of Shakespeare's art by the openness and elegance of his own writing style.

At last, the book Shakespeare has deserved: a brilliant book written by a virtual eyewitness who understands how a playwright takes the stuff of his life and his world and makes it into theater.
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01/01/2014
Greenblatt approaches Shakespeare's biography by drawing clues from existing documents and the published plays. He poses interesting theories about Shakespeare's "lost years," potential ties to Catholicism, and relationships with other playwrights in an engaging, very readable book. (LJ 8/04)