Shakespeare is one of the greatest Britons, arguably the greatest writer ever, known to everyone and enduringly popular. When Frank Kermode writes about Shakespeare brilliant reviews follow. His most recent book received the highest praise from leading literary figures: 'The best book on Shakespeare that I have ever read' (Melvyn Bragg) and 'Bearing the happy mark of Professor Kermode's accessible style' (Muriel Spark), 'I can think of no better guide' (Richard Eyre), 'A magnificent book ... what a pleasure it is to read' (James Wood), 'An inspiring work' (Tom Paulin), 'Blazing with insight an
Sir Frank Kermode has been a prominent figure in the world of literary criticism since the 1960s. He has been King Edward VII Professor of English Literature at Cambridge and Professor of Poetry at Harvard. He was knighted in 1991.
Frank Kermode's THE AGE OF SHAKESPEARE is an astonishing achievement... No comments are less than telling; most are highly original... Such acute close readings are smoothly integrated into a larger narrative which contextualises Shakespeare within his age.... Clarity of exposition and common sense mark every page... Kermode is unfailingly perceptive... - THE SPECTATOR.. the most surprising thing about Kermode's survey - one that is full of delightful surprises - is just how much he manages to squeeze in. The brief but authoritative attention given to each play produces elegant one-liners that, like the plays themselves, expand the mind... [Kermode] writes with an unruffled calm that does nothing to disguise the energy and sharpness of his thinking. - DAILY TELEGRAPHBesides being expert, eye-opening and short, Kermode's book has personal touches that freshen its approach... As always he writes as if he really loves literature. A rare thing. - SUNDAY TIMES...Kermode can pack more illumination into a sentence than most people can pack into a paragraph. He is a master at opening a sentence with a remark that makes you think nothing especially important is being said, then turning your expectations upside down by adding a pointed reflection... For such a small book, The Age of Shakespeare is packed with information... this is an excellent book, a distillation of a lif
Frank Kermode's THE AGE OF SHAKESPEARE is an astonishing achievement... No comments are less than telling; most are highly original... Such acute close readings are smoothly integrated into a larger narrative which contextualises Shakespeare within his age.... Clarity of exposition and common sense mark every page... Kermode is unfailingly perceptive... - THE SPECTATOR.. the most surprising thing about Kermode's survey - one that is full of delightful surprises - is just how much he manages to squeeze in. The brief but authoritative attention given to each play produces elegant one-liners that, like the plays themselves, expand the mind... [Kermode] writes with an unruffled calm that does nothing to disguise the energy and sharpness of his thinking. - DAILY TELEGRAPHBesides being expert, eye-opening and short, Kermode's book has personal touches that freshen its approach... As always he writes as if he really loves literature. A rare thing. - SUNDAY TIMES...Kermode can pack more illumination into a sentence than most people can pack into a paragraph. He is a master at opening a sentence with a remark that makes you think nothing especially important is being said, then turning your expectations upside down by adding a pointed reflection... For such a small book, The Age of Shakespeare is packed with information... this is an excellent book, a distillation of a lif
Adult/High School-A learned, if brief, journey through the world of William Shakespeare. Written in elegant, concise prose accessible to laypersons, the book moves quickly through the latest critical debates about the Bard's origins, and deftly summarizes the historical background of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods in which he lived and worked. The great political and religious issues of the times are explicated clearly and linked to the development of live theater as a mainstay of English popular culture. Most outstanding are the entertaining discussions of Shakespeare's literary successes in relation to his professional associations with a succession of professional acting companies and theaters. The analyses of the magnificent language in the context of contemporary cultural assumptions, evolving styles of acting, and the physical demands of the playhouses bring readers both a broader understanding and a deeper appreciation of the playwright's artistic triumphs. Along with Kermode's equally fine Shakespeare's Language (Farrar, 2001), this is an excellent choice for students curious (or struggling) to understand what all the fuss is about the Bard of Avon.-Starr E. Smith, Fairfax County Public Library, VA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
While the age of Shakespeare overlapped with the both the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, Kermode's compact, erudite appreciation of the Bard is less about Shakespeare's private life and turbulent times than his theatrical milieu and the worlds he created for the stage. Quick summaries of the pressing political issues of the Protestant Reformation and the successor Queen Elizabeth are followed by up-to-date surveys of the debates over Shakespeare's possible crypto-Catholicism and his "missing" years. But Kermode hits his stride with the plays. His breakdown of Shakespeare's artistic development and mature achievement by the various acting companies and theaters he was associated with from the Lord Chamberlain's Company to the renamed King's Men, from the Theatre and the Rose to the Globe and Blackfriars proves a satisfying structure to match the swift pace. Inevitably, the brevity of the Chronicles format can't provide equal time to all of Shakespeare's million-plus words of dramatic poetry, and Kermode prefers the tragedies and romances over the histories and comedies (to say nothing of the sonnets). Occasionally shifting to lectern manner, he also revisits some of his favorite tropes, which he explored in Shakespeare's Language, such as rhetorical doubling and pairing in Hamlet and the theme of equivocation in Macbeth. While Ben Jonson declared, "[Shakespeare] was not for an age, but for all time!" Kermode pleasurably shows how he and his works were of their age and also transcended it. (Feb.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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