521 pages
Published 2004
Read from February 10 to February 24
Rating: 4 out of 5
I’ve rarely read historical biographies. Many years ago I attempted Peter Ackroyd’s hefty The Life of Thomas More, but it proved so dense and abstruse that I gave up less than halfway through.
Ackroyd’s characteristic style (which assumes the reader already has a full understanding of the subject, eschewing any overview before stringing together obscure anecdotes, achieving a vibe instead of laying out the foundations and building from them) suited me better here. Somehow I’ve gotten through 40 years having read exactly one piece of Shakespeare’s writing—Hamlet. But Will Shakespeare pervades anglophone pop culture and general awareness far more than Thomas More. With that preexisting scaffolding in place, I learned a lot about the shape and texture of Shakespeare’s life and work from this book. Even better, Ackroyd takes pains to place the writer in the context of his time and culture. I was particularly drawn to the fleeting images of his fellow actors and the ways Shakespeare likely created his characters to suit their abilities.
Ackroyd’s tendency to just vibe makes for some strange sources. Twice he references what phrenologists concluded about Shakespeare’s cranium, apparently in all seriousness. Not the route I’d go with a 21st century biography.
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