Tag: context

‘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.

‘A Little History of Poetry’ by John Carey

Another book read with my English teacher hat on and one that helped me brush up my poetry knowledge. This book was published in April 2020.

As an English Literature graduate turned English teacher, I have ploughed through a fair amount of poetry in my time.  It's not my favourite form (I prefer a good novel) but I do have my favourite poems and writers that I return to frequently.  I hoped this book would contextualise them and perhaps give me some new avenues to explore.

I think it needs pointing out that this is a slightly odd idea for a book - a potted history of poetry that is accessible for the novice reader yet detailed enough to draw in more seasoned poetry readers (who you would expect would be the main readership for the book as people already receptive to poetry).  However, I think Carey has managed this well; the book covers a vast amount of ground, managing to fit in synopses, biography and context for a range of poems and poetry movements.  For me, it brought back memories of my undergraduate study - some good (it's always nice to revisit Larkin, Keats and Plath) and some less so (I hoped I'd heard the last of Piers Plowman, to be honest!)

The other strange thing about the book is that it can never be a totally objective history of poetry as it seems to promise - it's always going to include Carey's personal choices and preferences and I didn't agree with all his interpretations fully.  I absolutely bow down to him as being the expert, but I do think poetry is very subjective and open to personal readings, although it was interesting to hear about his take on poems that I know very well.  Carey's own preferences seemed most obvious in the amount of space allocated to individual poets - some were skimmed over in very little detail while others were explored in perhaps excessive depth (Yeats, I'm looking at you...)

Overall, I'd say this was a lovely book to use to contextualise your understanding of poets and their works - I certainly didn't realise that some of the poets were contemporaries or quite so closely linked.  The biographies are interesting and Carey is a knowledgeable and lively guide through the history of poetry.  It won't give you depth of understanding if you are already studying poems or poetic movements at a high level, but it's an accessible and entertaining read for those of us whose knowledge is perhaps a bit rusty!

I received a free copy of the book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Photo by Samantha Hurley from Burst

Links to purchase this title in hardback and on Kindle from the UK Amazon site are below. The Quick and the Read may earn a commission on any purchases at no extra cost to you.