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The Truth about William Shakespeare: Fact, Fiction and Modern Biographies
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The Truth about William Shakespeare: Fact, Fiction and Modern Biographies Hardcover - 2012 - 1st Edition

by David Ellis

From the publisher

A polemical attack on the ways recent Shakespeare biographers have disguised their lack of information.How can biographies of Shakespeare continue to appear when so little is known about him? And when what is known has been in the public domain for so long? Why have the majority of the biographies published in the last decade been written by distinguished Shakespeareans who ought to know better? To solve this puzzle, David Ellis looks at the methods that Shakespeare's biographers have used to hide their lack of knowledge. At the same time, by exploring efforts to write a life of Shakespeare along traditional lines, it asks what kind of animal 'biography' really is and how it should be written.Key Features* An expos of the Shakespeare biography industry showing that books which are marketed as biographies of Shakespeare are nothing of the kind. * From this book, the reader can learn all that is directly known about Shakespeare* Asks the reader to think about how we acquire our knowledge of other people and what we ought therefore to expect of biographies

From the rear cover

AUTHOR-APPROVED 'Very readable and often witty: David Ellis makes a convincing and entertaining case that recent biographies of William Shakespeare, though claiming to add to our knowledge of the poet's life, cannot really do so because the body of directly relevant evidence has remained more or less constant for the last hundred years.' Robert Bearman, former Head of Archives, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust 'In exposing the fabrications that biographers have resorted to in the face of the lack of knowledge of any kind to be had about Shakespeare's personality and private life, this book is sharply incisive, humorously as well as forensically so. It is also thoroughly informative about Shakespeare's life, insofar as it is known.' George Donaldson, University of Bristol The Truth about William Shakespeare Fact, Fiction and Modern Biography David Ellis 'Very readable and often witty, David Ellis draws attention to the fact that all recent biographies of William Shakespeare, though claiming to add to our knowledge of the poet's life, cannot really do so because the body of directly relevant evidence has remained more or less constant for the last hundred years.' Robert Bearman, former Head of Archives, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust 'In exposing the fabrications that biographers have resorted to in the face of the lack of knowledge of any kind to be had about Shakespeare's personality and private life, this book is sharply incisive, humorously so as well as forensically. It is also thoroughly informative about Shakespeare's life, insofar as it is known.' George Donaldson, University of Bristol /A probing account of the ways recent Shakespeare biographers have disguised their lack of information/ In the first decade of this century, biographies of Shakespeare poured from the presses in both Britain and the United States. How could this be when the last significant discovery of material with any direct relation to his life dates back to 1909? And why is it that

Details

  • Title The Truth about William Shakespeare: Fact, Fiction and Modern Biographies
  • Author David Ellis
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Edition number 1st
  • Edition 1
  • Pages 208
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Edinburgh University Press
  • Date 2012
  • Features Bibliography, Index, Table of Contents
  • ISBN 9780748646661 / 0748646663
  • Weight 1.25 lbs (0.57 kg)
  • Dimensions 9.6 x 6.4 x 0.7 in (24.38 x 16.26 x 1.78 cm)
  • Ages 22 to UP years
  • Grade levels 17 - UP
  • Themes
    • Cultural Region: British
  • Library of Congress subjects Shakespeare, William, Biography as a literary form
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2012451939
  • Dewey Decimal Code 822.33

Media reviews

Citations

  • Choice, 09/01/2012, Page 0

About the author

David Ellis is Professor of English Literature at the University of Kent at Canterbury.

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