How Shakespeare Changed Everything
-
-
4.0 • 1 Rating
-
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
Nearly four hundred years after his death, Shakespeare permeates our everyday lives: from the words we speak to the teenage heartthrobs we worship to the political rhetoric spewed by the twenty-four-hour news cycle. In the pages of this wickedly clever little book, Esquire columnist Stephen Marche uncovers the hidden influence of Shakespeare in our culture.
Some fascinating tidbits:
Shakespeare coined more than 1,700 words, including hobnob, glow, lackluster, and dawn.Paul Robeson's 1943 performance as Othello on Broadway was a seminal moment in black history.Tolstoy wrote an entire book about Shakespeare's failures as a writer.In 1936, the Nazi Party tried to claim Shakespeare as a Germanic writer.Without Shakespeare, the book titles Infinite Jest, The Sound and the Fury, and Brave New World wouldn't exist.The name Jessica was first used in The Merchant of Venice.Freud's idea of a healthy sex life came directly from the Bard.
Stephen Marche has cherry-picked the sweetest and most savory historical footnotes from Shakespeare's work and life to create this unique celebration of the greatest writer of all time.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
According to novelist and Esquire columnist Marche, Shakespeare was "the most influential person who ever lived," and his works frame how we understand the world. Obama, for instance, obliquely and redemptively replayed the story of Othello in the 2008 election, and for many Americans, he is the noble Moor, a courageous, charismatic outsider. Actor John Wilkes Booth apparently borrowed heavily from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar for his theatrical assassination of Lincoln. Shakespeare enriched the English language by coining hundreds of words, like "assassination," "bandit," "hobnob," and "traditional," and expressions with amazing staying power, like "green-eyed," "tongue-tied," and "dead as a doornail." Marche claims that Shakespeare's frankness about sexuality has done more to foster open attitudes than even Freud (who gained his humanism from Shakespeare). Romeo and Juliet's profound portraits of teenagers in all their absurdity, nastiness, and "terrifying beauty" have shaped our understanding of adolescence; and Shakespeare, the author claims, is the dominant influence in Hollywood and was wildly popular in Nazi Germany. Marche's essay is informative and entertaining, but also rambling. None of this adds up to Marche's claim that Shakespeare is more important than Obama or John Wilkes Booth or Freud. And only the Bard-obsessed will need a whole chapter on Shakespeare-inspired starling overpopulation. Illus.
