Bakunin's Reviews > Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

This is a speculative biography of William Shakespeare which was quite enjoyable to read (especially since the Greenblatts sketch of the Shakespeares contemporary world is quite detailed and rich). Shakespeare found himself in a very volatile environment which had only recently been turned protestant and where many still practiced Catholicism in secret. London was perpetually ravaged by various diseases and plagues. There was no police force and the citys administration had a tough time keeping up with the pace at which the city was growing. Greenblatt paints quite a colorful picture of the period and one can see how a mind as fertile as Shakespeare managed to find material for his plays.

But what was riveting was how Greenblatt hypothesized Shakespeares writing process. One of Greenblatts main thesis is that Shakespeare perfected a certain style of writing which enabled him to explore the inner life of his characters. Shakespeare, in his later plays, to cut out the generic explanation for a characters actions. Why does Iago betray Othello? Why does Hamlet wait to so long to avenge his father? Shakespeare often found a story which he then turned into an interesting play by changing the motivation of the main characters.

All in a all an interesting book but a bit too tendentious to really be believable.