REFLECTIONS ON THE TRUE SHAKESPEARE

Name: REFLECTIONS ON THE TRUE SHAKESPEARE
Author: Gary Goldstein
ISBN: 978-3-933077-47-9

by Gary Goldstein ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 18, 2016

An unstuffy, stylistically refreshing Shakespeare study.

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Awards & Accolades

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An erudite, persuasive debut study that makes a valuable contribution to the longtime debate over who authored William Shakespeare’s plays.

Goldstein makes it clear from the opening that he is an Oxfordian—not, as he points out, “a graduate of Oxford University” but rather “an independent scholar who holds that Shakespeare was written by Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (1550-1604).” The author has significant experience in his field, as he conducted more than 25 years of research; established a peer-reviewed journal, The Elizabethan Review; and co-edited Brief Chronicles, a literary journal with a focus on authorship studies. This book collects essays and reviews that he published in British and American literary journals. At the beginning, he provides a short, precise biography of de Vere and indicates why he and other Oxfordians believe that he’s a good fit as the possible author of the plays attributed to Shakespeare. Goldstein takes time to brief those who may be unfamiliar with this scholarly debate, making it accessible to relative newcomers. That’s not to say that his work is oversimplified, however; on the contrary, Goldstein provides detailed literary exegesis regarding the Shakespeare plays’ allegorical language and the presence and significance of the Essex dialect in them (de Vere was born in Essex). The intricacies of his argument are engaging, right down to the pronunciation of “Shylock” in The Merchant of Venice: “If Shakespeare was born and raised in the county of Essex, he would have pronounced the name as Shillock.” Although Goldstein is aware that many people vehemently defend their own views on the authorship of Shakespeare’s works, his own approach is admirable in that it’s quietly and intelligently assertive. He doesn’t attempt to bludgeon readers with his arguments; rather, he accumulates evidence and then modestly allows readers to decide for themselves. His study would have benefited from a strong concluding statement, but its open-endedness could be interpreted as a call to arms, as he actively requests readers to contact him and contribute to the debate.

An unstuffy, stylistically refreshing Shakespeare study.

Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2016

ISBN: 978-3-933077-47-9

Page Count: 252

Publisher: Verlag Laugwitz

Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE

50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

by William Strunk & E.B. White ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 15, 1972

Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...

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Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.

Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").

Pub Date: May 15, 1972

ISBN: 0205632645

Page Count: 105

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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IN MY PLACE

by Charlayne Hunter-Gault ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1992

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From the national correspondent for PBS's MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour: a moving memoir of her youth in the Deep South and her role in desegregating the Univ. of Georgia. The eldest daughter of an army chaplain, Hunter-Gault was born in what she calls the ``first of many places that I would call `my place' ''—the small village of Due West, tucked away in a remote little corner of South Carolina. While her father served in Korea, Hunter-Gault and her mother moved first to Covington, Georgia, and then to Atlanta. In ``L.A.'' (lovely Atlanta), surrounded by her loving family and a close-knit black community, the author enjoyed a happy childhood participating in activities at church and at school, where her intellectual and leadership abilities soon were noticed by both faculty and peers. In high school, Hunter-Gault found herself studying the ``comic-strip character Brenda Starr as I might have studied a journalism textbook, had there been one.'' Determined to be a journalist, she applied to several colleges—all outside of Georgia, for ``to discourage the possibility that a black student would even think of applying to one of those white schools, the state provided money for black students'' to study out of state. Accepted at Michigan's Wayne State, the author was encouraged by local civil-rights leaders to apply, along with another classmate, to the Univ. of Georgia as well. Her application became a test of changing racial attitudes, as well as of the growing strength of the civil-rights movement in the South, and Gault became a national figure as she braved an onslaught of hostilities and harassment to become the first black woman to attend the university. A remarkably generous, fair-minded account of overcoming some of the biggest, and most intractable, obstacles ever deployed by southern racists. (Photographs—not seen.)