The Quest for
Shakespeare by Joseph Pearce (Ignatius Press, 2008)
Highly regarded and
best-selling literary writer and teacher, Joseph Pearce presents a stimulating
and vivid biography of the world’s most revered writer that is sure to be
controversial. Unabashedly provocative, with scholarship, insight and keen
observation, Pearce strives to separate historical fact from fiction about the
beloved Bard.
Shakespeare is not only one
of the greatest figures in human history, he is also one of the most
controversial and one of the most elusive. He is famous and yet almost unknown.
Who was he? What were his beliefs? Can we really understand his plays and his
poetry if we don t know the man who wrote them?
These are some of the
questions that are asked and answered in this gripping and engaging study of
the world’s greatest ever poet. The Quest for Shakespeare claims
that books about the Bard have got him totally wrong. They misread the man and
misread the work. The true Shakespeare has eluded the grasp of the critics.
Dealing with the facts of Shakespeare s life and times, Pearce's quest leads to
the inescapable conclusion that Shakespeare was a believing Catholic living in
very anti-Catholic times.
Many of his friends and
family were persecuted, and even executed, for their Catholic faith. And yet he
seems to have avoided any notable persecution himself. How did he do this? How
did he respond to the persecution of his friends and family? What did he say
about the dreadful and intolerant times in which he found himself? The
Quest for Shakespeare answers these questions in ways that will
enlighten and astonish those who love Shakespeare s work, and that will shock
and outrage many of his critics. This book is full of surprises for beginner
and expert alike. – Amazon
Only arrived yesterday, and I am already deep into it. Pearce continues to enlighten and inform. While many English critics of the past (especially of the 'Whig' school of history) might have been reluctant to see the quintessential English writer as something so 'foreign' as Catholic, evidence abounds. "Yet modern 'scholars,' blind to this moral vision, have habitually misread the plays. Instead of seeing evidence of traditional Christian morality, they see the plays as a reflection of their own secular fundamentalist prejudices. It is, therefore, necessary to discover the real Shakespeare, and the real beliefs that he held, in order to expose this literary abuse of his work." Take that, Harold Bloom!
The Truth About Dragons, by Hazard Adams (HBJ, 1970)
Well, I threatened to buy it, and I have, Lord knows why. It's like a compulsion, an effort to preserve memories. I don't have any big recollection about it, great or terrible, but I have the feeling that reading it again might spark some emotions or ideas that would evoke a kind of hidden response. At the least I will come to some sort of adult (if not border-line senescent) assessment of it.
My Amazonian efforts have left my coffers a little depleted, and there's still two-thirds of the month to go. My situation reminds me of a story, recorded either in The Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes or Biblioholism: The Literary Addiction. A man (a writer) and his wife are near the end of their funds, and the man goes out with their last shilling to buy a fish for supper. However, he is diverted by a bookstore selling Night Thoughts, by Edward Young (very popular, once upon a time). Intrigued and then enamored, he spends the money on the book, and returns home to the wife. She is, naturally, disappointed, but he explains that had he bought the fish it would have soon been eaten and forgotten, whereas they could 'feast on Night Thoughts forever.' He claimed his wife 'saw the justice of his reasoning,' but I wonder.
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