How many books are there about Shakespeare? A study published in the 1970s claimed a figure of 11,000, and today a search of the British Library catalogue yields 12,554 titles that contain the playwright’s name. But good short introductions to Shakespeare’s life and work are not exactly plentiful.
Students and teachers are therefore likely to welcome this up-to-date overview from Paul Edmondson, a Church of England priest who works for the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
Although Edmondson covers the biographical ground succinctly, as well as discussing the plays and poetry in a style that’s discreetly authoritative, his approach is unconventional. Thus he dwells longer on the early, flawed The Two Gentlemen of Verona than on King Lear — not because he believes it is better, but because it shows Shakespeare finding his feet as a practitioner of stagecraft, dramatic verse and fleet-footed characterisation. He also thinks, freshly, about what it’s like to read Shakespeare — whether aloud or to oneself — and in this vein offers five robustly sensible pages suggesting how best to engage with the sonnets.
Edmondson allows himself quite a few spry generalisations: ‘Shakespeare is a great writer about forgiveness’, ‘Shakespeare delights in comic lovemaking’, ‘In his treatment of war, Shakespeare has a lot in common with Wilfred Owen.’ These seem calculated to beget exam questions ending with the instruction ‘Discuss’. But at its best his writing is witty and humane.
Less appealing are the illustrations by Andrew Park. He makes the young Anne Hathaway look like a cross between Olive Oyl and Wallis Simpson, and a cartoon depicting Shakespeare’s death (‘Alas, poor Shakey’) is cringeworthy. Yet cheesy as some of them are, the illustrations do achieve the desired effect of making the book appear perkily accessible.
One of Edmondson’s best decisions is to pay close attention to the texture of our encounters with Shakespeare in the theatre, an arena he aptly describes as ‘a social expression of culture’.
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