The Genius Of Shakespeare

This is a new kind of biography: a biography of Shakespeare's talent and reputation beyond the limits of his actual life. Part One explores the origins of his works, while Part Two traces their effects on succeeding generations. Never before has a single book combined new readings of Shakespeare's best-known plays with an authoritative summation of the authorship question, speculation on the biographical origin of the sonnets, and a history of how Shakespeare became an inspiration to later artists and a poet of international renown.

Jonathan Bate is King Alfred the Great Professor of English Literature at the University of Liverpool. He is the author of Shakespeare and Ovid (OUP, 1993), Shakespearean Constitutions (OUP, 1989), and Shakespeare and the English Romantic Imagination (OUP, 1986). Among his edited volumes are Titus Andronicus (Arden Shakespeare), Romantic Ecology, and The Romantics on Shakespeare.