Title: An airy nothingness
Product review: Greenblatt begins the book with the words, "Let us imagine . . ." He then attempts to fabricate a biography of a great writer based on a historical record that leaves doubt about how the writer could have gained the vast knowledge reflected in his plays. Greenblatt hypothesizes event after event that "might" have happened even though there is absolutely no evidence that it did -- for example, imagining young Shakespeare encountering the Jesuit Edmund Campion. Is this the best Shakespearean scholarship can do? An unconvincing attempt to imagine a biography where there isn't one. Should be listed on the "fiction" lists. Emerson said he couldn't "marry" Shakespeare's life to his works. Greenblatt tries, but fails, to do so.
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