Shakespeare, Peter Ackroyd
Shakespeare, Peter Ackroyd
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Shakespeare

Author: Peter Ackroyd

Narrator: Simon Vance

Unabridged: 19 hr 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/01/2005


Synopsis

This is the big one from Peter Ackroyd — and a worthy companion to London: The Biography.

Only Peter Ackroyd can combine readable narrative and unique observation with a sharp eye for the fascinating fact. His method is to position Shakespeare in the close context of his world. In this way, he not only richly conjures up the texture of Shakespeare’s life, but also imparts an amazing amount of vivid, interesting material about place, period and background.

Some snippets: Shakespeare was secretly a Roman Catholic; the witches in Macbeth were not hags but nymphs played by boys; the “best” bed was for guests which was why he bequeathed his wife his “second best” bed (the matrimonial bed in which he probably died); “ham acting” derives from the strutting walk which showed off the ham-strings; an actor called “Will” played female parts — could it have been Shakespeare himself? And, the strongest bond in the plays is between father and daughter, perhaps reflecting Shakespeare’s own family life.

About The Author

Peter Ackroyd is the author of biographies of Dickens, Blake, and Thomas More, and of the bestselling London: The Biography. He has won the Whitbread Book Award for Biography, the Royal Society of Literature’s William Heinemann Award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, The Guardian Fiction prize, the Somerset Maugham Award, and the South Bank Award for Literature. He lives in London.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Brian on March 12, 2021

I have read many books about Shakespeare and his times, but none have provoked a more ambivalent and varying reaction in me than Peter Ackroyd's "Shakespeare: The Biography". There are some nice strengths to this text, and there are some great weaknesses. There are too may dull and/ or redundant sec......more

Goodreads review by Terry on October 10, 2012

At predictable intervals over the course of the last four centuries, some cynical iconoclast has suggested that William Shakespeare was a simple-minded actor from the hinterlands who was hired by an Oxford-educated aristocrat to serve as the public face for his plays. The latest incarnation of this......more

Goodreads review by Deity World on April 30, 2023

Beautifully written and documented having seen the biopic and studied his work I was interested to read this book RIP to one of the greats......more

Goodreads review by Brooklyn on September 24, 2016

Hands down, one of the best biographies I've ever read. So engaging and enthralling; I learnt SO much and couldn't put it down. Definitely recommend for fans of The Bard & his works.......more

Goodreads review by Caroline on March 23, 2011

You'd think by now there'd be nothing new to say on Shakespeare, no more interesting insights to make, no way to take what little we know of him and make it justify yet another biography - and yet this book succeeds marvellously. Peter Ackroyd is a wonderful biographer - his biography of London is a......more


Quotes

“It really is a stupendous achievement . . . Peter Ackroyd is back at the height of his powers.”
–Phil Baker, Sunday Times