Mad about Shakespeare, Jonathan Bate
Mad about Shakespeare, Jonathan Bate
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Mad about Shakespeare

Author: Jonathan Bate

Narrator: Jonathan Bate

Unabridged: 9 hr

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/14/2022


Synopsis

‘Enlightening, moving’ SIR IAN MCKELLEN From the acclaimed and bestselling biographer Jonathan Bate, a luminous new exploration of Shakespeare and how his themes can untangle comedy and tragedy, learning and loving in our modern lives. ‘The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.’ How does one survive the death of a loved one, the mess of war, the experience of being schooled, of falling in love, of growing old, of losing your mind? Shakespeare’s world is never too far different from our own ‘permeated with the same tragedies, the same existential questions and domestic worries. In this extraordinary book, Jonathan Bate brings then and now together. He investigates moments of his own life – losses and challenges – and asks whether, if you persevere with Shakespeare, he can offer a word of wisdom or a human insight for any time or any crisis. Along the way we meet actors such as Judi Dench and Simon Callow, and writers such as Dr Johnson, John Keats, Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath, who turned to Shakespeare in their own dark times. This is a personal story about loss, the black dog of depression, unexpected journeys and the very human things that echo through time, resonating with us all at one point or another.

About Jonathan Bate

Jonathan Bate is foundation professor of environmental humanities at Arizona State University and a senior research fellow at Oxford University, where he was formerly provost of Worcester College.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Emma on February 20, 2022

A smart and engaging way for the author to share some deep personal stories and see them through a Shakespearian lens. Some great passages are chosen and have been carefully and thoughtfully picked for this read. The level of detail and how they parallel with the authors life is quite astonishing. A......more

Goodreads review by Davidcharlesbowmangmail.com on June 06, 2022

It was Jonathan Bate's "The Genius of Shakespeare" that maddened me in the way implied in the title of this, his latest book about England's greatest writer; then his "The Soul of the Age" went some way to confirm it. "Mad About Shakespeare" combines Bate's personal experiences of reading Shakespear......more

Goodreads review by FERNANDA on October 21, 2023

What can I say about this book? Maybe, read it! A literary memory of the finest quality, it is informative and emotionally charged. It makes one realise one has not read anything yet.... (sight...)......more

Goodreads review by Paul on September 26, 2024

Part memoir, part literary criticism, the book is wise and erudite and very emotional, especially in the final chapter which describes his daughter's serious illness.......more

Goodreads review by Upstart on December 30, 2023

Professor Jonathan Bate’s book reminds me of an episode which happened to the writer and journalist HV Morton when he went In Search of Scotland, almost a hundred years ago. Whilst being given a tour of the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, Morton is struck by the change in his guide’s demeanour after......more


Quotes

‘Many of us are mad about Shakespeare, whether as audience, actor or scholar. Jonathan Bate represents us all in his enlightening, moving report of his own personal “madness”. Reading it is an education’ ‘A startlingly original journey into the soul of Shakespeare by one of his greatest living interpreters’ ‘Jonathan Bate’s offers a series of moving lessons in the complex grammar of life. Speaking as student and teacher, son, husband, father and dramaturge, Bate produces a work of significant cultural and familial history that runs through the language and scenery of Shakespeare. Tying and untying knots, Bate asks how we might live alongside literature as a source of knowledge, comfort and hope.Shakespeare’s expansive plots and wise conceits offer extra space and time in which to live and breathe in the face of emergency; a literary bloodline offering wisdom, insight and consolation’ ‘An encouraging and welcome reminder of the importance of reading and talking about reading with young people … I hope lots of English teachers will read it and take heart’ ‘Ranges elegantly over a range of literary figures … A very readable account of the thrill of discovering literature … It is a touchingly reticent and romantic book’