Contested Will by James Shapiro audiobook

Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?

By James Shapiro
Read by Wanda McCaddon

Tantor Audio

Unabridged

Format : Library CD (In Stock)
  • 2 Formats: Library CD
  • 2 Formats: MP3 CD

  • ISBN: 9798200110018

  • ISBN: 9798200110032

Runtime: 11.03 Hours
Category: Nonfiction/Literary Collections
Audience: Adult
Language: English
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Summary

Summary

For nearly two centuries, the authorship of William Shakespeare's plays has been challenged by writers and artists as diverse as Sigmund Freud, Mark Twain, Henry James, Helen Keller, Orson Welles, Malcolm X, and Sir Derek Jacobi. How could a young man from rural Warwickshire, lacking a university education, write some of the greatest works in the English language? How do we explain the seemingly unbridgeable gap between Shakespeare's life and works?

Contested Will unravels the mystery of Shakespeare's authorship, retracing why and when doubts first arose, what's at stake in the controversy for how we value Shakespeare's achievement, and why, in the end, there can be no doubt about who wrote the plays.

Editorial Reviews

Editorial Reviews

“The book is rich with insight and analysis. Shapiro’s examination…is sensitive and convincing.” —Wall Street Journal
“Contested Will is a masterful work of literary history, an empathetic chronicle of eccentricity, and a calmly reasoned vindication of ‘the Stratford man.’” —Boston Globe
“With lucid writing for the common reader, with sense, and with respect toward those with whom he rightly disagrees, Shapiro tells how this whole mishegas got started, and then, with unbelievable patience, shows how it has not a shred of a breath of a hope of being anything.” —Philadelphia Inquirer
“Entertainingly combative.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“As Shapiro admirably demonstrates, William Shakespeare emerges with his name and reputation intact.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Shapiro’s lucid and fair-minded account and McCaddon’s exemplary narration combine to make this work accessible to anyone who loves Shakespeare.” —AudioFile
“A thorough, engaging work.” —Kirkus Reviews
With lucid writing for the common reader, with sense, and with respect toward those with whom he rightly disagrees, Shapiro tells how this whole mishegas got started, and then, with unbelievable patience, shows how it has not a shred of a breath of a hope of being anything. —Philadelphia Inquirer

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Author

Author Bio: James Shapiro

Author Bio: James Shapiro

James Shapiro has written several award-winning books on Shakespeare, including The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606, which won the James Tait Black Prize and the Sheridan Morley Prize. His essays and reviews have appeared in the New York Times, the London Guardian, and the London Review of Books, among other places. In 2011, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Guggenheim Foundation, and The New York Public Library’s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. He serves on the board of directors of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and he is currently the Shakespeare Scholar in Residence at the Public Theater in New York City. He is the Larry Miller Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, where he has taught since 1985.

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Details

Details

Available Formats : Library CD, MP3 CD
Category: Nonfiction/Literary Collections
Runtime: 11.03
Audience: Adult
Language: English

1-800-621-0182

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