Nine lives of William Shakespeare.

In recent years, the understanding of what a biography of Shakespeare is has expanded dramatically. There have been biographies of a single year, of a specific legal dispute, and of an avowedly speculative nature. Now Holderness (Univ. of Hertfordshire, UK) interrogates the nature of biography itself. In nine chapters, he investigates the very idea of Shakespeare's life and how biographers set about constructing that life. In each chapter, he takes a specific aspect of Shakespeare--his acting career, his love life, his religion--and investigates it from four angles: facts (verifiable historical evidence, always the shortest section); tradition (oral history that may have basis in fact, but cannot be independently verified); speculation (contemporary commentary by scholars and writers); and fiction (Holderness writes short stories that engage with elements of the other sections). By using this method rather than the traditional chronological/narrative method, Holderness brilliantly shows how biography is built out of a writer's desire to create a coherent life picture, one that explains a particular view of Shakespeare (Holderness references specific recent biographies to make this point). The book is immensely thoughtful and written so clearly that it will engage all readers. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. A. Castaldo Widener University