The critical success of the film and of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel, Hamnet, was the spur.
Several years ago, I bought James Shapiro’s 2006 Ballie Gifford award-winning book 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare, planning to make time to read it, someday, maybe.
Now, I have read and written about the novel Hamnet and found there an imagined version of the domestic half of the Shakespeare family’s story. It was a tale in which William is largely absent and the telling of it didn’t even mention his name. Time to read about the other half.
Shapiro (2005) tells a good story, bursting with facts that even many Shakespeare scholars may never have heard. It reads like good history. Its analysis of Shakespeare’s writing illuminates the craft. It’s a good read, but beyond that, it has a mission.
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