This volume presents a study of the changing images and differing ways that the life of English poet and playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616) has been interpreted throughout history. The author takes readers on a tour of the countless myths and legends which have arisen to explain the great dramatist's life and work, bringing the story right up to 1989. He reconstructs as much of the elusive author's life as possible, considering his family history, his economic standing, and his reputation with his peers; the Shakespeare who emerges may not always be the familiar one.

In this book, Franssen investigates the use of Shakespeare as a fictional character in different literary genres, periods and cultures.

For generations scholars have labored scrupulously to try to separate the facts of William Shakespeare's life from the myths that have entangled them. However, those who have written fictions about the bard have operated under no such constraints. They offer solutions to the identities of W.H. and the Dark Lady, suggest Shakespeare's role in the shaping of the King James Bible, and trace his relationships with Sir Thomas Lucy, Francis Bacon, Elizabeth I, Kit Marlowe and Ben Jonson. And they speculate endlessly about Shakespeare's pets and poaching, his sources and inspiration, his melancholy and death. From Alexandre Duval's Shakespeare (1804) to Anthony Burgess's "The Muse," this is an anthology of nineteen fictional depictions of Shakespeare. They include Edward H. Warren's account of Shakespeare playing the stock market on Wall Street (with the Three Weird Sisters making stock predictions near a blast furnace in New Jersey), Leon Rooke's vivid memoir of the Bard's dog, and the works of such notables as George Bernard Shaw, Rudyard Kipling and Edward Bond are included.

Tells the story of Shakespeare in Stratford as a family man. The book offers close readings of key documents associated with Shakespeare and develops a contextual understanding of the genres from which these documents emerge. It reconsiders clusters of evidence that have been held to prove some persistent biographical fables

Acclaimed as the greatest dramatist of all time, William Shakespeare needs little introduction. Or does he? Going beyond Shakespeare the writer and actor, Graham Holderness explores the fact and fiction, tradition and myth, surrounding Shakespeare's life. Combining biography and fictional narrative, Holderness takes a fresh critical approach to the problem of piecing together a definitive account of Shakespeare's life and work from scant historical information. Instead, this study builds upon and examines the many theories that surround the life of this well-known, yet remarkably unknown man. Nine Shakespeares are presented: writer, player, butcher boy, businessman, husband, friend, lover, Catholic and portrait. By carefully critiquing these biographies and reimagining these nine men, Nine Lives of William Shakespeare creates a unique picture of how this playwright became Shakespeare as he is understood today. Shakespeare Now! is a series of short books that engage imaginatively and often provocatively with the possibilities of Shakespeare's plays. It goes back to the source – the most living language imaginable – and recaptures the excitement, audacity and surprise of Shakespeare. It will return you to the plays with opened eyes.

Including twenty-one groundbreaking chapters that examine one of Shakespeare's most complex tragedies. Othello: Critical Essays explores issues of friendship and fealty, love and betrayal, race and gender issues, and much more.

Winner of the 2007 Gradiva Award and the 2006 Goethe Award for Psychoanalytic Scholarship The definitive biography of one of the most engaging figures of British psychoanalysis.Both gifted analyst and generational bete noire, M. Masud R. Khan (1924–1989) exposed through his candor and scandalous behavior the bigotry of his proponents turned detractors. The son of a wealthy landowner in rural India (now Pakistan), Khan grew up in a world of privilege that was radically different from the Western lifestyle he would adopt after moving to London. Notorious for his flamboyant personality and, at first, widely acknowledged as a brilliant clinician, Khan was closely connected to some of the most creative and accomplished individuals of his time, including Donald Woods Winnicott, Anna Freud, Robert Stoller, Michael Redgrave, Julie Andrews, Rudolph Nureyev, and many more. Khan’s subsequent downfall, which is powerfully narrated in this biography, offers interesting insights not only into Khan’s psychic fragility but into the world of intrigues and deceptions pervasive in the psychoanalytic community of the time. In telling the story of this provocative man, Linda Hopkins makes use of unprecedented access to a complete copy of Khan’s unpublished Work Books, which are quoted extensively. Additionally, she conducted innumerable interviews with Khan’s peers, relatives, and analysands in order to provide an in-depth and balanced account of Masud Khan as a talented and deeply conflicted individual.

No estimate of Shakespeare’s genius can be adequate. In knowledge of human character, in wealth of humour, in depth of passion, in fertility of fancy, and in soundness of judgement, he has no rival.' William Shakespeare was one of the most influential dramatists and poets whose plays are performed more often than those of any other playwright till today. In this work Sidney Lee presents the major facts of Shakespeare’s life and illustrates them with numerous quotes of the sonnets and plays. Sidney Lee was an editor of the Dictionary of National Biography and several English classics. One of his special subjects was the life and work of William Shakespeare.