Douglas J. King

The author looks at the various myths and stories about Shakespeare to determine the history of the story and the facts that support (or don't support) it. He begins with the obvious - was Shakespeare really Shakespeare? - and moves on from there. He discusses the way the story spread, how long it's been around, and what the evidence shows. He states that he isn't going to say what is real unless it is settled, just give us the evidence, but it is not difficult to tell which side he is on. It is pretty impossible to write something like this without showing your own conclusions even if only by accident, and I don't actually find that a downside of the book. There were some places where some egregious errors were introduced, such as accidentally putting the length of time from Shakespeare's retirement to his death as actually the length of time from Elizabeth's death to Shakespeare's; I suspect that was a failure of editing rather than math as he doesn't do that anywhere else. But there are also a couple of places where he mixes up the plot, such as having Oberon and Titania get married at the end of Midsummer Night's Dream instead of Theseus and Hippolyta. Overall, a worthwhile book, but errors like that can grate for anyone knowledgeable about Shakespeare - particularly if they have seen Midsummer Night's Dream a dozen times or more.… (plus d'informations)