Title: Accessible but hardly ground-breaking
Product review: This "biography" of the world's greatest playwright is a clearly written, accessible introduction to the connections between Shakespeare's work and the few extant details of his life. Greenblatt sometimes is forced to imagine the connective tissue between these two subjects, but of any living commentator he is probably one of the most qualified to do this. A far cry from his penetrating scholarly work, this book usefully collects and condenses many known theories on the links between Shakespeare's writings and his life-story. I would recommend this book to the general reader who is just starting to develop an interest in early modern English literature and Shakespeare's work. For the seasoned reader in this field, however, there is little new here to dine upon.One major caveat: if you have not read Shakespeare's plays and poems, be sure to review them before tackling Greenblatt's book. Otherwise, you will certainly be left in his academic dust.
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