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OverviewThis lively, readable and challenging new biography, by the editor of the acclaimed Arden edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets, takes a fresh look at an enduring cultural icon, about whose life it is widely claimed that nothing is known. As a result Shakespeare has tended to be viewed in Romantic isolation: the Bard as lonely inspired singer enthroned on a mountain peak.The aim of this study is to replace the image of the lonely genius with one of Shakespeare as deeply involved, even enmired, in the geographical, social and literary context of his time. This Shakespeare is a man who lives in a congested city and has to deal with disease, debt and cut-throat competition; his manifest brilliance often makes him the object of envy and malice, rather than adulation. Much of his life and writing is seen as the result of accident and circumstance, rather than the product of artistic vision or a grand career plan. From his shotgun wedding at the age of 18 to the burning down of the Globe Theatre over 30 years later, he is beset by bad luck. His most brilliant works are seen as creative responses to external constraints, such as the plague outbreaks that frequently closed the public theatres during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Katherine Duncan Jones also takes a fresh look at the tradition of Shakespeare's love for a 'Dark Lady' and concludes rather that he devoted his most personal and passionate writing to the service of young men. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Katherine Duncan-JonesPublisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Imprint: The Arden Shakespeare Dimensions: Width: 15.60cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 23.40cm Weight: 0.966kg ISBN: 9781903436264ISBN 10: 1903436265 Pages: 336 Publication Date: 22 March 2001 Audience: Primary & secondary/elementary & high school , College/higher education , Adult education , Secondary , A / AS level Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Out of Print Availability: In Print  Limited stock is available. It will be ordered for you and shipped pending supplier's limited stock. Table of ContentsReviews'[A] deeply considered and stimulating book, informed throughout by the author's intimate knowledge of the literature and society of Shakespeare's age... These scenes from Shakespeare's life...offer refreshing alternative points of view that no future biographers will be able to ignore.' Stanley Wells, Time Literary Supplement 'It is unquestionably the best Shakespearean biography of the new century' Jonathan Bate, Sunday Telegraph 'Ungentle Shakespeare is beautifully produced and lavishly illustrated. Its author's scholarly credentials are impeccable. At the same time, she tells a good story.' The Independent 'Katherine Duncan-Jones's constantly illuminating and hugely enjoyable biography restores the author and his plays to bubbly life...Duncan-Jones triumphantly constructs an upsetting trajectory from playful youth to rancorous skinflint, through which art matures even as character hardens.' The Observer 'Katherine Duncan-Jones has written an uncommonly good book. There are riches on every page... Her concentration on theatre, politics, social conditions, the effect of the recurrent outbreaks of plague, make this a book that anyone interested in Shakespeare will read eagerly and return to time and again. It is an utterly absorbing book, if a dark one.' The Times Author InformationTab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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