Comments on: Will in the World by Stephen Greenblatt

By: Rebecca Reid

Rebecca Reid — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 01:24:28 +0000

Steph, I’ve considered Bloom’s Shakespeare book, but I suspect I will be rather tired of him by the end of this project. I’m already getting tired of him, although I do like the “reading list.” Greenblatt’s book is, I think, a pretty easy approach — while he certainly is a scholar, it’s written for a layman. Although, from seeing some of the reviews on Amazon, apparently some people think Greenblatt speculated a bit too much. I really liked it and I’m really looking forward to reading Shakespeare’s complete works too!

By: Steph

Steph — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:06:06 +0000

This sounds really interesting and like something I should check out. For my birthday this year I received the complete works of Shakespeare (it was a very cool gift!) so my goal is to eventually read my way through them all. Fortuitously, without realizing what Tony was giving me, my good friend also gave me a book on Shakespeare that I’ll need to dip into at some point. I also have Harold Bloom’s book on Shakespeare, which you might enjoy given that you’re working your way through his “How To Read & Why”.

By: Rebecca Reid

Rebecca Reid — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 01:09:15 +0000

Christina, yeah, Greenblatt points out the very shocking cultural significance of his doing that. Shakespeare essentially reduced Anne’s share of his property from 33% by default to just the bed. If he hadn’t mentioned his wife at all, she’d have gotten 33% of his estate. Seems he was really trying to stick it to her….

By: Christina

Christina — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 22:41:30 +0000

I’ve never read a biography about Will Shakespeare, but every year my teachers always get a big kick out of telling us that in his will he left his best bed to his daughter and his second best bed to his wife.