The Players: A Novel of the Young Shakespeare

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Summary: Totally sensual and engrossing...couldn't put it down!
Review: Shakespeare came to life as never before. A deep portrait of a sensitive young artist finding himself in his writing. The love triangle was magical.

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Summary: "The Players" is tender, evocative and beautifully written.
Review: Stephanie Cowell's tender, deeply felt, beautifully written "The Players: A Novel of the Young Shakespeare" is a wonderful fictionalized biography, sweet, yearning and passionate. It is the story of Shakespeare's growing up and of his love for the Earl of Southampton and the celebrated Dark Lady of the Sonnets. Marlowe and Ben Jonson are two more of the brilliantly drawn characters, and the whole life of Elizabethan England, the bustle of the busy port of London, and of the art and theater of those days is so really evoked that we feel we are there. My emotions were aroused, and I found the story evocative of my own life, of feelings I have had, the events being so engrossing, so engaging and involving, that I was deeply moved. The Historical Notes at the end of the book are also fascinating. Read this book! You will love it, as I do.--Robert Blumenfeld

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Summary: The Players
Review: This beautifully realized and passionate fictional account of the young Shakespeare's life is rich with period detail that transports the reader back in time to Elizabethan England. The book is also filled with well-wrought, complex characters -- the actors, writers, and others whom Shakespeare knew -- and their relationships with one another. For anyone who loves historical fiction or Shakespeare, or wonders about the "Dark Lady" of the sonnets, this book will be mesmerizing. Highly recommended.