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Know It All Shakespeare: 50 Key Aspects of the Bard's Works, Life & Legacy, Each Explained in Under a Minute
Know It All: Shakespeare uses a unique approach to grapple with the work and influence of the world's most famous playwright. This absorbing crash course in William Shakespeare takes the reader through what we know of his life and then turns to uncoding key concepts, themes, and motifs in his plays and works. Finally, the reader is given a succinct look at the Bard's extraordinary literary and linguistic legacy.
- GenresNonfiction
160 pages, Paperback
Published June 1, 2017
2 people are currently reading
513 people want to read
About the author
Ros Barber
17 books98 followersNovelist, both historical and speculative fiction. Debut novel The Marlowe Papers (2012) was winner of the Desmond Elliott Prize 2013, joint winner of the Author's Club Best First Novel Award 2013, long-listed for the 2013 Women's Fiction Prize (formerly the Orange Prize).
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Second novel, Devotion (2015) was short-listed for the Encore Award 2015.
📕📕📕Third novel: an epic adventure, currently (spring 2024) being edited.
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Non-fiction: literary history/biography, specialising in Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe. Editor and co-author of 30-Second Shakespeare (UK) / Know-it-All Shakespeare (US). Author of Shakespeare: The Evidence and the Coursera MOOC Introduction to Who Wrote Shakespeare.
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Poetry. A collection of poems, Material (2008) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. The title poem features in Faber's Poems of the Decade and is taught in schools in the UK.
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Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for updates, offers and insider info.
😀😀😀
Second novel, Devotion (2015) was short-listed for the Encore Award 2015.
📕📕📕Third novel: an epic adventure, currently (spring 2024) being edited.
☠️☠️☠️
Non-fiction: literary history/biography, specialising in Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe. Editor and co-author of 30-Second Shakespeare (UK) / Know-it-All Shakespeare (US). Author of Shakespeare: The Evidence and the Coursera MOOC Introduction to Who Wrote Shakespeare.
📚📚📚
Poetry. A collection of poems, Material (2008) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. The title poem features in Faber's Poems of the Decade and is taught in schools in the UK.
🎓🎓🎓
Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for updates, offers and insider info.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 31, 2017
3.5 Stars
Full review to come!
Full review to come!
June 22, 2017
There are lots of books which claim to make you appear ridiculously well-read for little effort and ‘Know-It-All Shakespeare’ superficially resembles these.
After all, its stated aim is “to make Shakespeare interesting and comprehensible by … boiling down the subject to its essence” by examining – to quote the book’s subtitle - ‘The 50 Key Aspects of the Bard’s Works, Life & Legacy, Each Explained in Under a Minute’.
The book will serve the needs of those students coming to Shakespeare afresh, who wish to have a potted summary of his life, times, themes, methods and legacy but should also entertain and inform those already possessed of a working knowledge of at least the most popular Shakespeare plays.
The ten contributors certainly provide plenty of interesting ideas and fascinating facts, including the following: thirty-three characters in 18 of the plays are wrongly thought to be dead; more than 20 characters are exiled; 12 women defy their fathers to marry the men they chose; 5 women are unjustly accused of infidelity by jealous husbands; Margaret of Anjou is Shakespeare’s only female character to kill someone on stage; and Fulvia is never seen in ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ but is mentioned 18 times.
The book is also very attractively illustrated throughout, although an English royal family tree would have been a useful addition.
There are bound to be omissions in any book which seeks to be this succinct. There is, for example, no mention of the impact of the plague on Shakespeare’s life. The only serious problem with the book, however, lies in its glossary, or rather in its multiple glossaries. There are seven: one at the start of each of the book’s seven main sections.
Some terms - such as stock-fish, bull-pizzle, seditious and puritan – are not defined, despite appearing in the main text. Other entries – “Hamlet Perhaps Shakespeare’s most famous play and the name of its leading character” – seem redundant. “Allusion” receives different (but equally valid) definitions in two glossaries. “Great Chain of Being” appears in two glossaries, the second entry representing an extension of the first. “Elixir” is first mentioned in the text roughly fifty pages before its glossary entry. “Soliloquy” is first used by Mark Rylance in his Foreword but doesn’t appear in a glossary until much later in the book, and then appears again, in the same words, yet later in the book. Other terms which appear in identical words in two glossaries include “Bohemia”; “satire”; “rude mechanicals”; “sonnet”; “tetralogy”; and “alchemy”. “History play”; “metaphor” and “blank verse” all boast identical entries in three glossaries apiece.
This mess could so easily have been avoided by having one glossary at the back of the book.
I do not, however, want to end on a negative note. This is a very enjoyable book (if you can largely ignore the glossaries) which will genuinely enlighten on topics as varied as Shakespeare’s knowledge of medicine and the law, the extent of his vocabulary, his use of rhyme and his attitude towards the monarchy.
After all, its stated aim is “to make Shakespeare interesting and comprehensible by … boiling down the subject to its essence” by examining – to quote the book’s subtitle - ‘The 50 Key Aspects of the Bard’s Works, Life & Legacy, Each Explained in Under a Minute’.
The book will serve the needs of those students coming to Shakespeare afresh, who wish to have a potted summary of his life, times, themes, methods and legacy but should also entertain and inform those already possessed of a working knowledge of at least the most popular Shakespeare plays.
The ten contributors certainly provide plenty of interesting ideas and fascinating facts, including the following: thirty-three characters in 18 of the plays are wrongly thought to be dead; more than 20 characters are exiled; 12 women defy their fathers to marry the men they chose; 5 women are unjustly accused of infidelity by jealous husbands; Margaret of Anjou is Shakespeare’s only female character to kill someone on stage; and Fulvia is never seen in ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ but is mentioned 18 times.
The book is also very attractively illustrated throughout, although an English royal family tree would have been a useful addition.
There are bound to be omissions in any book which seeks to be this succinct. There is, for example, no mention of the impact of the plague on Shakespeare’s life. The only serious problem with the book, however, lies in its glossary, or rather in its multiple glossaries. There are seven: one at the start of each of the book’s seven main sections.
Some terms - such as stock-fish, bull-pizzle, seditious and puritan – are not defined, despite appearing in the main text. Other entries – “Hamlet Perhaps Shakespeare’s most famous play and the name of its leading character” – seem redundant. “Allusion” receives different (but equally valid) definitions in two glossaries. “Great Chain of Being” appears in two glossaries, the second entry representing an extension of the first. “Elixir” is first mentioned in the text roughly fifty pages before its glossary entry. “Soliloquy” is first used by Mark Rylance in his Foreword but doesn’t appear in a glossary until much later in the book, and then appears again, in the same words, yet later in the book. Other terms which appear in identical words in two glossaries include “Bohemia”; “satire”; “rude mechanicals”; “sonnet”; “tetralogy”; and “alchemy”. “History play”; “metaphor” and “blank verse” all boast identical entries in three glossaries apiece.
This mess could so easily have been avoided by having one glossary at the back of the book.
I do not, however, want to end on a negative note. This is a very enjoyable book (if you can largely ignore the glossaries) which will genuinely enlighten on topics as varied as Shakespeare’s knowledge of medicine and the law, the extent of his vocabulary, his use of rhyme and his attitude towards the monarchy.
June 22, 2017
This is the book I wished I had read when I took my Shakespeare’s class back in college. The book is appealing for those who are new to Shakespeare and want to get a feel of the author, his world, and his works; but it is also a delight for confirmed fans of Shakespeare. The book makes an interesting showcase of Shakespearean topics such as his context, heroes and villans, and other interesting elements of his works. The layout of the book is easy to read and inviting. It is not intimidating for the new readers of Shakespeare and the pictures are varied and colorful. I really liked that the author included a short glossary at the beginning of each chapter explaining some of the words to better understand the subjects presented there; this was a nice and thoughtful touch that many publishers and authors do not always care to offer their readers. Overall, great presentation of an old; nonetheless, eternally interesting author.
June 15, 2017
This book gives a nice, short introduction to Shakespeare and some of his most famous works. For in depth analyses it's not really that useful, but it gives you a nice list of topics which might be of interest if you are starting on Shakespeare in class.
The writing is good and very informative, but it really only gives you a short overview over the topics you might be interested in. The illustrations don't really add anything to the book and I would have hoped that the author would choose illustrations are more closely connected to the texts.
The writing is good and very informative, but it really only gives you a short overview over the topics you might be interested in. The illustrations don't really add anything to the book and I would have hoped that the author would choose illustrations are more closely connected to the texts.
July 20, 2017
A nice concise guide to themes in Shakespeare's writing.
August 9, 2017
A good little overview of Shakespeare perfect for Alevel/pre-degree age.
August 17, 2017
The design is very animated and the illustrations are super artful, although the text is reductive and sloppy.
November 4, 2021
This book would be great for anyone studying Shakespeare but for just general reader I didn’t find it massively engaging, I did like each page being a different topic and it was an easy read.
October 2, 2017
The Know It All books offer a fast-paced look into various topics with lots of fun images thrown in. They cover a lot of topics with a good overview amount of data. Each topic is easily digestible on one page so it's great to flip to a random page and read (or read in order like I did). The books introduce new vocabulary that you would need in order to understand the next few topics. .
Know it All Shakespeare - This was a fun book for me to read because it explained a lot of background into the Shakespearean time, as well as common themes throughout his work. I think this would be a great book for any new fan to read, as it gives descriptions of a lot of his plays throughout which could inspire your list of books to read. I would not gift this to my sister who has a degree in English because I think it would be a review and a bit of a bore. To the rest of us without lit degrees, it was a fun, enjoyable read which would be a great edition to a coffee table book collection where someone could flip to a random page and learn something new.
Know it All Shakespeare - This was a fun book for me to read because it explained a lot of background into the Shakespearean time, as well as common themes throughout his work. I think this would be a great book for any new fan to read, as it gives descriptions of a lot of his plays throughout which could inspire your list of books to read. I would not gift this to my sister who has a degree in English because I think it would be a review and a bit of a bore. To the rest of us without lit degrees, it was a fun, enjoyable read which would be a great edition to a coffee table book collection where someone could flip to a random page and learn something new.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews