A book read with my English teaching hat on today! This was published in May 2020.
First of all, I should say that I'm an English teacher who reads fairly obsessively about Shakespeare. I'm no expert, but I've read a lot and know some of the plays in more depth than I'd really think is healthy! I loved the idea of this book as it promised to combine Shakespeare with the medical realities of the deaths he wrote about.
Although some of the book was familiar ground for me, this would be a fabulous book for someone coming fairly fresh to the topic. It gives a lot of historical context about the Elizabethan and Jacobean worlds and also talks a lot about what Shakespeare's audiences would understand about death and illness. It covers a whole range of the fictional deaths and also relates them to the historical records (as far as can be ascertained from some pretty unreliable sources!) From the cannibalism of 'Titus Andronicus' to the suicide-by-snake of Cleopatra, from the multiple poisonings in 'Hamlet' to the faking of death in 'Romeo and Juliet' - it's all here and packed with interesting detail and speculation. It also delves into some of the less-performed plays which is really fascinating, and explores some work by Shakespeare's contemporaries.
I'd recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Shakespeare, the history of medicine or the Elizabethan/Jacobean period. I honestly thought there wasn't much new that anyone could tell me about 'Hamlet', but I was proved wrong! An engaging and entertaining read!
I received a free copy of the book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.
Photo by Samantha Hurley from Burst
