William Shakespeare: A Very Short Introduction

Very Short Introductions #060

by Stanley Wells

In this new offering from Stanley Wells, the pre-eminent Shakespearian scholar, comes a Very Short Introduction to the life and writings of the world's greatest and best-known dramatists: William Shakespeare.

Looking at his early life and education, Wells explores Shakespeare's social and intellectual background and the literary traditions on which Shakespeare drew. Examining the theatres and theatrical profession of the time, he also considers how Shakespeare experienced this world, both as an actor and as a writer.

Examining Shakespeare's narrative poems, sonnets, and all of his plays, Wells outlines their sources, style, and originality over the course of Shakespeare's career, to consider the fundamental impact his work has had for subsequent generations. Written with enthusiasm and flair by a scholar who has devoted a lifetime to the study of Shakespeare and his works, this is an engaging and authoritative introduction.

ABOUT THE SERIES:
The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Genres: Nonfiction, Shakespeare, Literature, Biography, History, Literary Criticism, Drama

144 pages, Paperback

First published February 27, 2015

About the author

Stanley William Wells, CBE, is a Shakespeare scholar and Chairman of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

Reviews

[max theodore · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book claims its target audience is people who don't know much about shakespeare and would like to explore The Basics. i'm... not sure how well it actually serves that purpose, because despite being A Very Short Introduction, it is VERY full of LOTS of information. if i gave this to my parents, they'd be completely lost. that said, i did not give it to my parents! i read it. and the information inside was wonderful & the overview of each play specifically (in near-chronological order, no less) made me QUITE happy. five stars for being fun for me and i don't care about anyone else /j

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series of books on various topics is brilliant as they give you a brief but decent overview. Wells discusses the life of Shakespeare as well as his work. Excellent.

[Faras_bookclub · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm what to say about this. I really liked the first part of what we actually know about Shakespeare as a person and how is work was influenced by his surroundings/England at that time and the final part in how it still influences a lot to this day. However the actual descriptions and analysis of his writings/plays which I guess is the main part of idea of a book like this just isn’t for me. For someone who likes reading book reviews on here, I get bored really easily when reading like proper/descriptive literary reviews 🙈

[Roman Clodia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stanley Wells talking about this volume in his introduction describes it as a 'short book about the man and his writings, to persuade readers who were previously indifferent to Shakespeare that it is worth getting to know more about him'. This is, I would say, good for GCSE students or general readers and theatre-goers wanting a bit of context. What it doesn't do, unlike many of the other books in this series, is give a sense of where Shakespeare studies are today.

The first chapter gives a concise biography; the second (the best) summarises the theatrical context putting some emphasis on the collaborative nature of play-writing though not underlining that much of 'Shakespeare' isn't necessarily by Shakespeare. After that is four chapters of potted stories of the plays, each often less than a page long, which are full of description and plot summaries (all those things we tell students not to do). The final chapter is more or less a list of later receptions, appropriations and creative adaptations of Shakespearean texts.

It's disheartening that this volume seems to replace the 2002 Shakespeare: A Very Short Introduction written by Germaine Greer which no longer appears in the series list at the front of this book. Greer took a far more challenging approach to Shakespearean studies (note the title: Shakespeare rather than the biographical William Shakespeare) and offered an accessible glimpse into the state-of-play in academic approaches to the field. Wells moves the game back to being all about the man and gives a coherency to the canon by locating textual developments in the psychological state of 'William Shakespeare'. It should also be noted that while Wells is a brilliant *editor* of Shakespeare, he's not a critical scholar and relies on extremely conventional and traditional readings of the plays which date more or less back to the Victorians, and does nothing to indicate the complexities of the current academic field.

So as an introduction for GCSE students or general readers this is fine, I guess: A level or undergraduate students will, though, find many of the assumptions and ideas underpinning this book being challenged, scrutinised and overturned by their lecturers.

[Chrissy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this short introduction engaging, accessible and suitable for the beginner to Shakespeare. A lot of useful and relevant information is packed into a short read of only 115 pages. I learned that Ovid's great poem 'Metamorphoses' was one of Shakespeare's favourite books and inspired much of his writing, Shakespeare was only 18 when he married Anne Hathaway who was pregnant at the time and Shakespeare's only son Hamnet died in 1596. We know from Shakespeare's will that he left his second-best bed to his wife but no one knows what this meant, whether it was an intended insult or compliment. And the section on the First Folio was exceptionally beneficial for my studies and for the knowledge it has given me. Stanley Wells writes, 'The Folio is immensely important because half of the plays it includes are printed there for the first time. Without it we should almost certainly be without some of Shakespeare's greatest plays, including Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Macbeth, Anthony and Cleopatra, and The Winter's Tale. It does not include any of Shakespeare's poems, perhaps for copyright reasons.' (p47) I had no idea Shakespeare had been such a huge inspiration to Virginia Woolf and in particular, in her novel Orlando Wells says Woolf brings Shakespeare 'before us.' I have read Orlando only once and now I am eager to read it again to see what Wells means. The first play I intend to read after reading this introduction and which I may well choose for my first assessment is The Tempest and that is due to Wells's description of it. Wells writes, 'it is a supremely poetic drama, not just because it contains some of Shakespeare's greatest poetry but because it speaks, as the greatest poetry does, on many levels at once, universally relevant and - if we can hear Ariel's music - universally effective.' (p105) At the back of the introduction, there is a chronology of Shakespeare's works which is helpful for people not familiar with Shakespeare's canon. I thought this was an up-to-date and brilliant introduction. Well done! Stanley Wells.

[Hank Hoeft · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent introduction and overview of William Shakespeare, including information about his life, his work, the world in which he lived, and an overview of his works (plays, long narrative poems, and sonnets). I was surprised by the amount of personal details are included, from even before his birth (that is, information about his father and mother, and grandfather), through his childhood, to the adult years before moving to London to pursue a career in theater, to his early years in theater, his later years, and then his legacy that continued after his death.

The overview of his plays is interesting in that they are discussed not strictly chronologically in the order they were written (or in scholars' best guess of the order in which they were written) but in groupings, and groupings other than the usual histories-tragedies-comedies arranging of Shakespeare's plays. As a high school English teacher whose goal in teaching Shakespeare to my students every year is to instill an appreciation and maybe (if I'm lucky) a love of Shakespeare's works, this Very Short Introduction is one I want not just to read, but to own a copy myself, so that I might refer to it when I try to tell them just how much of a genius Shakespeare was, and still is.

[Benjamin Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good intro to the Bard and his works. Nothing terribly noteworthy.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is far too long!
-Jokes-
An insightful, easy-to-read outline of the life and times of the greatest playwright in history. The snippets of his sonnets and plays are delightful.

[Vic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had to read this for a uni essay. It is really simple and easy to read an provide many things to know about the playwright. So it is a good book for Shakespeare’s "beginners”.
I regret that there is so mich occurence to all the plays because since I didn’t read much of them, I was still lost a bit when Wells explained why this scene or another had a key role in the plays’ structures.
Nevertheless, it is an easy way to get to know more about the great William Shakespeare, at least for the 3 first chapters.

[Directorscut · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easily the best Very Short Introduction I've read so far offering concise but prescriptive commentary on every Shakespeare play. It has the best short reading of Othello I’ve read, vividly explaining its greatness in four short paragraphs. It is also completely free of the Marxist and feminist claptrap that blights other entries in the series.

[Rex Libris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great summation of everything William Shakespeare. The book starts with a biography of Shakespeare that covers both his writing and acting careers, as well as his personal life. Discussions of the plays are divided by era and genre, with synopsis of plots and analysis of where the play fits into his development as a writer.

[Iñigo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting introduction to William Shakespeare: his life and his works. However, I considered that there are some key features that, in my humble opinion, should have been included: a historical background and the relevance that Shakespeare had with regards to what we nowadays call English.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting, if compact, overview of William Shakespeare....the man, the theatre, the times & his works.

[Marilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

My impression is probably hurt by the fact that I listened to the Talking Books version, and the reader mispronounced several of the names and other words. This was annoying!

[Annabella · Rating 3 out of 5]

very informative. a little too informative.

[Joseph Knecht · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the short introduction to the life of William Shakespeare.

I did not enjoy the introduction to his work.

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reads like a brief textbook. Good introduction.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good intro. The first half of the book, on Shakespeare’s life and times, is very successful. The second half, which summarises the plays at breakneck speed, is much less useful.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging and decent intro for beginners, but sometimes leans pretty heavily into speculation. Better alongside another book than alone.

[Tobi · Rating 2 out of 5]

More supposition and speculation than actual fact. It got very frustrating. Stick to Germaine Greer's Very Short Introduction to Shakespeare is my advice.

[Vikas Datta]

Fantastic..

[Helen Mears · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great little intro to Shakespeare. What better host could there be than Sir Stanley Wells?