analysis Archives - The Quick and the Read

Book Review: ‘The Darcy Myth’ by Rachel Feder

Happy publication day to this funny, thought-provoking, non-fiction book!

I am a ‘Pride and Prejudice’ fan. Not a super-fan, or a Janeite or an Austen obsessive, but I can enjoy the novel. I’ll never love ‘Mansfield Park’ (hideous A Level flashbacks) and I was the wrong generation to appreciate Colin Firth in THAT shirt (yes, I totally get it now…) but I totally respect the way that Jane Austen quietly wrote novels that are still part of the collective consciousness over 200 years after her death.

So I came to this book with purely an interest in a feminist reading of Mr Darcy by someone who really knows ‘Pride and Prejudice’ inside out – and has had the headspace to ponder on it at length as part of her career in academia. Rachel Feder is an associate professor in English at the University of Denver and really knows her stuff.

‘Shakespearean’ by Robert McCrum

Another 3rd September publication. Don’t forget to follow my blog to see all the reviews of new books this week.

I’m an English teacher and Shakespeare obsessive so I was very pleased to receive a free copy of this book pre-publication from NetGalley in return for an honest review. I was particularly intrigued about this book as I had read about Robert McCrum’s stroke and the part that he had credited Shakespeare with in his recovery (being the fragments of language that made sense to him in the aftermath of his medical crisis).

McCrum is a very knowledgeable and interesting guide to Shakespeare and – possibly more engagingly – what ‘Shakespearean’ has come to mean in the centuries following the death of the bard. This book is part memoir of McCrum’s own experiences with Shakespeare as part of his own Shakespeare Club who attend various performances. However, it also contains so much more than this – snippets of Shakespeare’s biography, historical context, information about the reception of the plays in different places and times, bits of critical analysis and commentary – the book is packed with information and supported with extensive endnotes and a bibliography.

Personally, I particularly enjoyed the bits about the plays I know best – which tended to be the tragedies and comedies. I appreciated the fact that the book was comprehensive, but found the history play sections a bit more of a challenge. I also found the structure of the book a little difficult in places – when it worked, it was like a fascinating chat with someone really interesting as it went off on interesting tangents and picked up related thoughts well. However, when it was less successful it came across as a little unstructured and random.

Having just read Emma Smith’s excellent ‘This is Shakespeare’, I found it really thought-provoking to compare and contrast the different takes on the same material. In particular, the ideas around the end of Shakespeare’s career were striking and the extent to which he reflected this in Prospero in ‘The Tempest’. I also really enjoyed the way that McCrum wrote about the way that Shakespeare’s plays transferred to – and became highly significant in – America, mainly because this was an area I hadn’t really read about before.

Despite the little niggles, I did enjoy this and did learn some interesting new things. I would recommend this to people who are already fairly familiar with Shakespeare’s plays as McCrum does anticipate that you share his passion and have a working knowledge of the texts. This is an engaging stroll through Shakespeare’s works with an entertaining and lively guide.

You can buy your own copy of ‘Shakespearean’ using the link below – I may earn commission on purchases at no extra cost to you.

Header photo with thanks to Matt Riches for sharing their work on Unsplash.

‘This is Shakespeare’ by Emma Smith

A swerve away from recent posts, but I wanted to share this review of an absolutely excellent book on Shakespeare. This one has definitely given me food for thought as an English teacher.

Professor Emma Smith is a Shakespeare expert and Oxford University lecturer who I had only encountered previously as a result of her 'Approaching Shakespeare' podcasts. She really knows her subject inside out, but the refreshing thing about this book is the lightness of touch. I've read a lot of books on Shakespeare (it comes with the English graduate and teacher territory), but few are as engaging and readable as this one without skimping on the academics.

In this book, Professor Smith takes the plays one at a time and presents a shortish essay/chapter on each. These essays are ordered roughly chronologically, although obviously we can never be entirely sure of the exact order in which the plays were produced. Each chapter addresses a play from a different or unusual perspective, so opens out some interesting thoughts about Shakespeare's biography, sources, intentions, themes, characters...the list goes on and Professor Smith takes the essay wherever is interesting rather than having any particular set formula for her writing. This means she moves between topics fluidly and avoids labouring points. Her approach is always rigorously academic and scrupulously referenced, yet full of humour and surprising elements - I loved her defence of Keanu Reeves' acting in 'Much Ado about Nothing' on the basis that it is his character rather than Keanu who is as wooden as a wardrobe! She never shies away from more controversial ideas either, such as the idea that if 'The Tempest' was Shakespeare's swansong and the character of Prospero intended as parallel to Shakespeare himself (as is a commonly accepted idea), then perhaps we wouldn't have liked Shakespeare (as a man) much. In other essays, she identifies plot holes, discusses source texts and how reactions to plays have changed over the 400 years or so since they were written. The idea isn't that this is a definitive guide, but that the plays cannot be pinned down and explained as they continue to develop different meanings to different audiences.

I feel that I've written a lot about this book without really grappling with even a fraction of the fascinating ideas put forward. It certainly gave me a lot to think about in relation to the Shakespeare plays I know and love, but also a way into the ones I don't know so well. It even made me reconsider the plays I know and really don't love!

This is a fantastic book about Shakespeare for everyone from the casual reader to Shakespeare fans, from those who want to know a bit more about their favourite play to those engaged in academic study. It is entertaining, surprising in places and entirely readable - not a given for books in this field usually.

I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review but – Shakespeare geek alert! – I also bought my own for future reference!