Rating: 
Summary: The Life and Times of Mr. William Shakespeare
Review: A great deal of Shakespeare's life appears never to have made it into the official record, and Park Honan, for all his skill as a writer, cannot change that.What Mr. Honan does do, however, is construct in detail the setting for what facts we do know about Shakespeare's life. Even if we lack many of the basic facts of Shakespeare's boyhood, for instance, we know what Stratford was like, and we know what kind of lives boys in Stratford led. Mr. Honan lays out this setting, gives us the known facts about young Will, contents himself with making the occasional relatively safe guess, and leaves it at that. Despite the fact that Mr. Honan's book is mostly setting, with a fairly scarce plot, it's a good read, flowing well and entertaining. Your study of Shakespeare should start here.
Rating:
Summary: A remarkable and lucid book
Review: A wonderfully written book that cuts through the myths and speculations concerning Bill's life. A view of Shakespeare's life as he lived it. As a boy, a writer, a business man. Easily the best book on the Bard.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: After the standard non-bio (we know so little about him, etc) offered during my school years, this detailed and solid account of Shakespeare comes as an entertaining surprise. Obviously there's been a lot unearthed about Shakespeare's life just since the short time I last visited Stratford. Honan's book is especially interesting for the myths it dispels about the Bard. He seems to have been a surprisingly down to earth man, good natured, aware of his talent but by no means filled with an overweaning sense of greatness the way later artists would be. Superb overall.
Rating: 
Summary: A pleasure for those with an historical-literary bent.
Review: An excellent and as thoroughly as possible knowable account (for now), of the Bards life. Scholarly, and sometimes dense, but accessible and an enjoyable pleasure for the well-read in literature, Shakespeare, the theatre, etc.; especially those finding delight in the details. It does, however, lack the passion of Blooms's "Shakespeare, The Invention of the Human". The latter book which draws on Shakespeare's plays exclusively and exhaustively soars with soul-deep passion to great heights of pure joy in the expression of Shakespeare's words, emotion and humanism. Bloom's Shakespeare, if you have the time and interest, is a 5-star book. Well worth it actually even if you only delve into some of the plays.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as advertised
Review: As a general reader, I found this book very disappointing. The blurb calls it a "complete, accurate . . . narrative of Shakespeare's life." There are not enough facts or continuity to call it a narrative. It's more of a web of suppositions. The logic seems to be: the plays suggest an educated man; so Shakespeare must have been educated. Some plays suggest a sensitive man; so Shakespeare must have been sensitive. There were smart people living in London at the time; so Shakespeare must have known some smart people. As for reliability: According to the totally unsupported words of a man who lived 100 years later, Shakespeare went to a Latin Grammar school. Our author ingenously says, "we have no reason to discredit (his) words," adds an endnote which says that there was a Latin Grammar school in the county, and then writes pages and pages on what it "would have been like" to go to such a school.
Rating:
Summary: Not as advertised
Review: As a general reader, I found this book very disappointing. The blurb calls it a "complete, accurate . . . narrative of Shakespeare's life." There are not enough facts or continuity to call it a narrative. It's more of a web of suppositions. The logic seems to be: the plays suggest an educated man; so Shakespeare must have been educated. Some plays suggest a sensitive man; so Shakespeare must have been sensitive. There were smart people living in London at the time; so Shakespeare must have known some smart people. As for reliability: According to the totally unsupported words of a man who lived 100 years later, Shakespeare went to a Latin Grammar school. Our author ingenously says, "we have no reason to discredit (his) words," adds an endnote which says that there was a Latin Grammar school in the county, and then writes pages and pages on what it "would have been like" to go to such a school.
Rating: 
Summary: Lifeless Life.
Review: Honan does much to firmly establish William Shakespeare as a solid citizen (if also tax dodger). He gives no handle at all to those who would charge him with homosexuality or even adultery and offers plausible explanations for many disputed aspects of the poet's life. But it is a dreadfully lifeless, plodding, life. It takes a really strong prior interest in Shakespeare to persevere through this book. Those coming first to Shakespeare should avoid it, unless they themselves are doing research and need an excellent guide to sources and interpretation thereof.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent biography
Review: Honan's biography of Shakespeare is superb. The writing style is good, the research reliable, and the play reviews are appropriate. The reader ends up with a detailed knowledge of the life of the bard. That is the purpose of a biography. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent biography
Review: Honan's biography of Shakespeare is superb. The writing style is good, the research reliable, and the play reviews are appropriate. The reader ends up with a detailed knowledge of the life of the bard. That is the purpose of a biography. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: It was thebest book I ever read! It was incredibly amazing.
Review: If you are going to read a book it better be this one! It is so captivatingly interesting and the life of the bard was the most interesting thing I have ever read about. Buy It!
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