How Shakespeare Changed Everything - Softcover

Marche, Stephen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 144340652X ISBN 13: 9781443406529

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2012

Synopsis

If you look closely, Shakespeare is all around us. From nightclubs and suburban mall food courts to the theatre where Lincoln died, from coffee mugs to shopping bags―William Shakespeare’s literary power is so intense and so widespread that it intrudes into the material world. How Shakespeare Changed Everything, by novelist and esquire columnist Stephen Marche, takes us on a delightful tour through the continuous stream of Shakespeare’s influence on the world stage.

The gifted playwright who moves audiences to laughter and tears has also moved history. Marche summons up the great Bard in the most unexpected places. He explains the political currency of Shakespeare in both democracies and totalitarian regimes; during World War II, Churchill, Hitler and Stalin all appealed to Shakespeare’s works.

Packed with fascinating tidbits, How Shakespeare Changed Everything takes a deep look at how Shakespeare’s spirit permeates our everyday lives, and, more importantly, how the world as we know it would not exist without Shakespeare. Did you know:

• Shakespeare coined somewhere in the vicinity of 1,700 words, including lacklustre, fashionable, auspicious, bandit, glow, hush, dawn, gnarled, hobnob, traditional, and even the name Jessica.
• Abraham Lincoln read Shakespeare aloud as he was sailing up the Potomac days before his death and, through mysterious coincidence, chose Macbeth to recite, the very play in which Shakespeare is believed to have invented the word “assassination.”

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Did you know the name Jessica was first used in The Merchant of Venice?

Or that Freud's idea of a healthy sex life came from Shakespeake?

Nearly four hundred years after his death, Shakespeare permeates our everyday lives: from the words we speak to the teenage heartthrobs we worship to the political rhetoric spewed by the twenty-four-hour news cycle.

In the pages of this wickedly clever little book, Esquire columnist Stephen Marche uncovers the hidden influence of Shakespeare in our culture, including these fascinating tidbits:

• Shakespeare coined over 1,700 words, including hobnob, glow, lackluster, and dawn.
• Paul Robeson's 1943 performance as Othello on Broadway was a seminal moment in black history.
• Tolstoy wrote an entire book about Shakespeare's failures as a writer.
• In 1936, the Nazi Party tried to claim Shakespeare as a Germanic writer.
• Without Shakespeare, the book titles Infinite Jest, The Sound and the Fury, and Brave New World wouldn't exist.

Stephen Marche has cherry-picked the sweetest and most savory historical footnotes from Shakespeare's work and life to create this unique celebration of the greatest writer of all time.

About the Author:

STEPHEN MARCHE is a contributing editor at Esquire magazine. He also writes regular features and opinion pieces for The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Walrus and elsewhere, and is a weekly contributor to CBC Radio. His books include four novels, The Hunger of the Wolf, Raymond and Hannah, Shining at the Bottom of the Sea and Love and the Mess We’re In, as well was a work of non-fiction, How Shakespeare Changed Everything. He lives in Toronto with his wife and children.

 

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 144340652X
• ISBN 13: 9781443406529
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224