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Mad About Shakespeare
- From Classroom to Theatre to Emergency Room
- Narrated by: Jonathan Bate
- Length: 9 hrs
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Mad About Shakespeare
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Summary
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.
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What listeners say about Mad About Shakespeare
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Not Bob
- 05-07-23
Inspiring and Moving
Lovely perceptive memoir by a brilliant literary scholar. Johnathan Bate is a gifted communicator. Very entertaining.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- oohmarkie
- 20-04-22
Enjoyable.
I enjoyed this. I’ve read a fair bit of the author’s work and found them a lot less pretentious and precious than many books about Shakespeare and Fitzgerald. They were biographies or critical studies so I was a bit apprehensive about the shift to the autobiographic in this. Shouldn’t have fretted though- it really is a very engaging book. It’s rather more discreet than is usual for an autobiography, to be sure, so if you want confessional sauciness, look elsewhere! He’s great on Shakespeare (natch) and his enthusiasm for Virginia Woolf really made me want to read something by her.
I also found it moving which I definitely did not expect. The authors’ narration adds to the general air of sincerity. A pleasure.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- C. Pennington
- 17-03-23
Inspiring and rather wonderful
I enjoyed everything about this Audible book. It did result in me buying a few books mentioned in the recording… but there is nothing wrong with that! It also made me go back to the Shakespeare plays discussed and reread parts..
I enjoyed the way that it made a love of Shakespeare (and other books) come alive and have relevance in a readers life today. The discussion of Woolf, Ted Hughes and many other writers was inspiring too.
All in all this was a lovely audible purchase that I am so glad to have in my library to go back to a few times.
It was also ‘unputdownable’ if that is a thing with audible books. Maybe I should say, I couldn’t wait to listen and plug myself in with ear pods.
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