A witty, historical account of how Shakespeare has come to be accepted as the world genius of literature. The book includes an attack on nationalistic interpretations of Shakespeare.
"Jonathan Bate, the sanest, shrewdest scholar of Shakespeare at present, has written the just, liberal, unhostaged book that one has been waiting for."-James Wood, Guardian
"A shrewd, nimbly written book, one of the few on its subject that will be read and enjoyed off-campus."-Terry Eagleton, Independent
"Ambitious, exceptionally well informed and immensely engaging . . . Bate has, to an exceptional degree, the virtue of readability. He writes with unflagging energy, intelligence, wit and enthusiasm."-Stanley Wells, Daily Telegraph
"The theme of this wonderfully written, diverse book is diversity itself, and its range serves only to confirm the disparate nature of Shakespeare's achievement."-Peter Ackroyd, The Times
"What made Shakespeare 'Shakespeare'? How much do we really know about his life? How do we know that he really wrote the plays attributed to him? What defines his singularity? No book on the market answers these questions better than The Genius of Shakespeare."-James S. Shapiro, author of 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare
"Bate offers an excellent resource for students of English literature and the Elizabethan era in this thoughtful, well-researched and even playful explication of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets."-Publishers Weekly
"Jonathan Bate, the sanest, shrewdest scholar of Shakespeare at present, has written the just, liberal, unhostaged book that one has been waiting for."-James Wood, Guardian
"A shrewd, nimbly written book, one of the few on its subject that will be read and enjoyed off-campus."-Terry Eagleton, Independent
"Ambitious, exceptionally well informed and immensely engaging . . . Bate has, to an exceptional degree, the virtue of readability. He writes with unflagging energy, intelligence, wit and enthusiasm."-Stanley Wells, Daily Telegraph
"The theme of this wonderfully written, diverse book is diversity itself, and its range serves only to confirm the disparate nature of Shakespeare's achievement."-Peter Ackroyd, The Times
"What made Shakespeare 'Shakespeare'? How much do we really know about his life? How do we know that he really wrote the plays attributed to him? What defines his singularity? No book on the market answers these questions better than The Genius of Shakespeare."-James S. Shapiro, author of 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare
"Bate offers an excellent resource for students of English literature and the Elizabethan era in this thoughtful, well-researched and even playful explication of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets."-Publishers Weekly
"Jonathan Bate, the sanest, shrewdest scholar of Shakespeare at present, has written the just, liberal, unhostaged book that one has been waiting for."-James Wood, Guardian
"A shrewd, nimbly written book, one of the few on its subject that will be read and enjoyed off-campus."-Terry Eagleton, Independent
"Ambitious, exceptionally well informed and immensely engaging . . . Bate has, to an exceptional degree, the virtue of readability. He writes with unflagging energy, intelligence, wit and enthusiasm."-Stanley Wells, Daily Telegraph
"The theme of this wonderfully written, diverse book is diversity itself, and its range serves only to confirm the disparate nature of Shakespeare's achievement."-Peter Ackroyd, The Times
"What made Shakespeare 'Shakespeare'? How much do we really know about his life? How do we know that he really wrote the plays attributed to him? What defines his singularity? No book on the market answers these questions better than The Genius of Shakespeare."-James S. Shapiro, author of 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare
"Bate offers an excellent resource for students of English literature and the Elizabethan era in this thoughtful, well-researched and even playful explication of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets."-Publishers Weekly
"Jonathan Bate, the sanest, shrewdest scholar of Shakespeare at present, has written the just, liberal, unhostaged book that one has been waiting for."-James Wood,
Guardian"A shrewd, nimbly written book, one of the few on its subject that will be read and enjoyed off-campus."-Terry Eagleton,
Independent"Ambitious, exceptionally well informed and immensely engaging . . . Bate has, to an exceptional degree, the virtue of readability. He writes with unflagging energy, intelligence, wit and enthusiasm."-Stanley Wells,
Daily Telegraph"The theme of this wonderfully written, diverse book is diversity itself, and its range serves only to confirm the disparate nature of Shakespeare's achievement."-Peter Ackroyd,
The Times"What made Shakespeare 'Shakespeare'? How much do we really know about his life? How do we know that he really wrote the plays attributed to him? What defines his singularity? No book on the market answers these questions better than
The Genius of Shakespeare."-James S. Shapiro, author of
1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare
