Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt, is one of those biographies that truly change the way you think about the subject. Everyone thinks they know a bit about Shakespeare, but what do we really? The imaginings of various 19th and 18th century biographers? The myths? The rumors that it was "really someone else" who wrote all those plays? (Let me be fair and declare that to be bunk in my opinion - straight away here!) Greenblatt takes the latest known scholarship and turns it into readable prose that attempts to dig away at the secrets of Shakespeare.
He gives us the Catholic background of Will's family, and their lives in a Protestant world. And Greenblatt manages to explain how this religious struggle effected the way Shakespeare viewed the world.
The details of Shakespeare's fellow playwrights and what everybody was reading at that time, is very fascinating when you discover that Will had a habit of borrowing bits and pieces from all over the place as he was perfecting his style.
Some of the conclusions may be conjecture, but until we find something else - meet Mr. Wm. Shakespeare - actor, playwright, and gentleman.
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