All the men and women merely players

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.