Shakespeare's Restless World: Portrait of an Era

Category: Books,Literature & Fiction,History & Criticism

Shakespeare's Restless World: Portrait of an Era Details

Review Praise for Shakespeare’s Restless World“What did Elizabethan theatergoers eat while watching Hamlet? British Museum Director MacGregor answers that question and many others as he examines 20 objects, now in museums and libraries, that illuminate daily life in Shakespearean England. . . . Beautifully illustrated, MacGregor’s history offers a vibrant portrait of Shakespeare’s dramatic, perilous, and exhilarating world.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)“Visually splendid, intellectually stimulating . . . Just as he did in A History of the World in 100 Objects, MacGregor repeatedly converts fascinating objects into talismans transporting readers across time and geography.”—Booklist (starred review)  “Neil MacGregor offers sparkling insights into Shakespeare’s times and how the Elizabethans really lived. . . . Filled with anecdotes and insights, eerie, funny, poignant and grotesque, Shakespeare’s Restless World is another brilliant vindication of MacGregor’s understanding of how physical objects enter deep into our fore-father’s mental and spiritual world.”—Sunday Times (London)  “MacGregor wants us to see both how the past shapes and shades our present but—equally—how strange and alien it should feel. . . . He shows time and again how the epoch-making changes that the Stratford playwright both lived through and expressed still echo through our arguments and anxieties over community and identity.”—The Independent  “A revelation . . . MacGregor’s choice of clocks, mirrors, and swords opens a door on to the lost world of London’s theatregoers in and around 1600. . . . The interrogation of these objects yields a sequence of fascinating footnotes to Shakespeare’s timeless poetry.”—The Observer (London)   Read more About the Author Neil MacGregor has been the director of the British Museum since 2002; prior to that, he was the director of the National Gallery in London. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller A History of the World in 100 Objects. Read more

Reviews

(I'm 14 writing this on my mom's account)This book is a great way to learn a lot about shakespeare and the elizabethan era. It talks about everything from the social classes to the beauty standards, and it gives you a thorough run down of what an elizabethan theater experience would've been like. It has some pictures here and there to break things up a little,which makes it a lot less intimidating to look at. Over all it was a very helpful book and I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about shakespeare and his time period.

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