Download Becoming Shakespeare: The Unlikely Afterlife That Turned a Provincial Playwright into the Bard AudioBook Free
Becoming Shakespeare begins where most Shakespeare tales end―with his death in 1616―and relates the fascinating story of his improbable change from provincial playwright to widespread Bard. Unlike later literary giants, Shakespeare created no mix when he passed away. Though he'd once experienced a string of hit plays, he had been retired in the country for six years, in support of his family, friends, and business partners seemed to care and attention that he was eliminated. Within a few years he was practically forgotten. And when London's theaters were shut down in 1642, he seemed destined for oblivion.Along with the Recovery in 1660, though, the theaters were wide open once again, and Shakespeare began his long ascent: No longer just one playwright among many, he became the transcendent genius in the centre of British culture. Fifty years after the Restoration scholars began taking him critically. Fifty years from then on he was considered England's biggest genius. And by 1800 he was pretty much divine.Jack Lynch vividly chronicles Shakespeare's afterlife―from the revival of his has to the decades when his work was co-opted and "improved" by politicians and other playwrights, and culminating with the "Bardolatry" of the Stratford celebration of Shakespeare's three-hundredth birthday in 1864. Becoming Shakespeare is not only essential reading for anyone intrigued by Shakespeare, but it also offers a concern of the vagaries of fame.
