"Will in the World" by Stephen Greenblatt

It is difficult for me to write about books that aren't fictional. But I have recently finished reading Stephen Greenblatt's "Will in the World," which I found so fascinating and thoroughly entertaining that I can't leave it out of my blog.

Greenblatt is best know as one of the founders of the New Historicism movement, and as a scholar of Renaissance Studies and Shakespeare Studies. He had edited numerous anthologies that I use in my studies, including "The Norton Shakespeare," from which I read the Bard's plays every month. In this book, he illustrates perhaps as vivid a portrait of Shakespeare as can possibly be illustrated, using a wide range of existing documents regarding Shakespeare and England of the time. The task was possible, luckily, because the Elizabethan society happened to be a record-keeping one, so that while we have very few known facts about Shakespeare, a highly educated and probably conjecture can be formed. Greenblatt's research is impressive, and while what he writes about Shakespeare can be challenged, the information is still a valid knowledge about the literary and theatrical world, as well as the lives of the English people. The book discusses the reign of Elizabeth and James; the politics surrounded social classes, religion, witchcraft, and the theater; The Bard's possibly homosexual relationship with Lord Southamton; and how the different elements in Shakespeare's lives--his father's obscure faith, England's famous figures, the death of his son, and the Bard's aging process--contribute to the plots and the characters in his plays.

But the book isn't merely about history. Greenblatt draws many connections between Shakespeare's texts to those of others, offering insights into how art and society inform each other. There are thoroughly studies of "Measure for Measure," "Hamlet," and "King Lear," and many more, which guarantee to change the way we read these plays for the better. Despite being highly informative, I really enjoy this book and highly recommend it to anybody who is interested in Shakespeare and Renaissance history.