The Life and Times of William Shakespeare

Gr 8 Up—Life and Times gives a brief overview of Shakespeare's life, mentioning documented evidence and explaining what scholars deduce from it. Information is presented in a straightforward fashion; the first chapter focuses on Shakespeare and the remaining bulk of the book is devoted to describing major events and historical figures from Elizabethan and Jacobean England. Few attempts are made to tie historical happenings to Shakespeare until the final chapter, which describes theater in Shakespeare's London. Tragedies first explores Renaissance theater in depth, followed by a summary and an analysis of Shakespeare's tragedies. The title provides few quotations from the texts themselves, but the presentation and coverage are adequate as they stand. Both volumes include sidebars, reproductions, and photographs. These books will be useful for reports, but the dry writing style ensures that appeal to other readers will be extremely limited.—Misti Tidman, Licking County Library, Newark, OH