Young Will: The Confessions of William Shakespeare - Hardcover

Cook, Bruce

2.91

34 ratings by Goodreads

9780312335731: Young Will: The Confessions of William Shakespeare

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312335733 ISBN 13: 9780312335731

Publisher: Truman Talley Books, 2004

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A fresh and vivid re-imagining of Shakespeare's early years in Stratford and in London

It's 1616 and William Shakespeare is back in his native Stratford-Upon-Avon. His extraordinary career as a playwright and poet in London seems like another world. A strange encounter with a witch-like madwoman in his local churchyard fills Will with dread, and sends him reeling back in memory to those darker days in London along the filthy, fevered banks of the Thames-a time when politics, plagiarism, sexual passions, and betrayed friendship conspired to the point of murder.

Author Bruce Cook perfectly captures Shakespeare's coming of age in a fresh and vivid way. The actors, teachers, lovers, and fellow writers spring to life in Shakespeare's confessions-especially a talented, twisted, compelling, and dangerous man called Kit Marlowe, who would change Will's life forever.

Shakespeare speaks, from first page to last, and tells everything. Literally everything...

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About the Author:

Bruce Cook wrote, under the name Bruce Alexander, ten superlative mysteries about the blind magistrate Sir John Fielding. He also wrote four contemporary mysteries about Los Angeles Detective Chico Cervantes. Cook was an editor and reviewer for such publications as Newsweek, USA Today, and the Los Angeles Daily News. Born and raised in Chicago, he lived with his wife, violinist Judith Aller, in Los Angeles, California.

From Booklist:

Under the name Bruce Alexander, the late Cook wrote 10 historical mysteries about the blind magistrate Sir John Fielding; he also wrote 4 contemporary mysteries about Los Angeles detective Chico Cervantes. This posthumous novel displays the author's customary sophisticated use of historical detail; more surprising is its unexpectedly dark yet gripping portrait of a young William Shakespeare. In 1616, 52-year-old Shakespeare is so badly spooked by an encounter with a deranged old woman rumored to be a witch that he immediately sets out to write his "confessions," in which he outlines his sins. He ranges from pilfering apples to more serious offenses, including his role as absentee father and husband. Along the way, readers are treated to a lively re-creation of the competitive atmosphere among playwrights in a filthy and teeming London as they vie for patronage from aristocrats. His fateful meeting with the devious Kit Marlowe, who becomes his lover, sets him on a path to committing his most serious sins, including betrayal and murder. An imaginative if twisted depiction of the young bard. Joanne Wilkinson
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