The Great William

Writers Reading Shakespeare

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, British, American
Cover of the book The Great William by Theodore Leinwand, University of Chicago Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Theodore Leinwand ISBN: 9780226367699
Publisher: University of Chicago Press Publication: May 2, 2016
Imprint: University of Chicago Press Language: English
Author: Theodore Leinwand
ISBN: 9780226367699
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication: May 2, 2016
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Language: English

The Great William is the first book to explore how seven renowned writers—Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Virginia Woolf, Charles Olson, John Berryman, Allen Ginsberg, and Ted Hughes—wrestled with Shakespeare in the very moments when they were reading his work. What emerges is a constellation of remarkable intellectual and emotional encounters.

Theodore Leinwand builds impressively detailed accounts of these writers’ experiences through their marginalia, lectures, letters, journals, and reading notes. We learn why Woolf associated reading Shakespeare with her brother Thoby, and what Ginsberg meant when referring to the mouth feel of Shakespeare’s verse. From Hughes’s attempts to find a “skeleton key” to all of Shakespeare’s plays to Berryman’s tormented efforts to edit King Lear, Leinwand reveals the palpable energy and conviction with which these seven writers engaged with Shakespeare, their moments of utter self-confidence and profound vexation. In uncovering these intense public and private reactions, The Great William connects major writers’ hitherto unremarked scenes of reading Shakespeare with our own.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

The Great William is the first book to explore how seven renowned writers—Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Virginia Woolf, Charles Olson, John Berryman, Allen Ginsberg, and Ted Hughes—wrestled with Shakespeare in the very moments when they were reading his work. What emerges is a constellation of remarkable intellectual and emotional encounters.

Theodore Leinwand builds impressively detailed accounts of these writers’ experiences through their marginalia, lectures, letters, journals, and reading notes. We learn why Woolf associated reading Shakespeare with her brother Thoby, and what Ginsberg meant when referring to the mouth feel of Shakespeare’s verse. From Hughes’s attempts to find a “skeleton key” to all of Shakespeare’s plays to Berryman’s tormented efforts to edit King Lear, Leinwand reveals the palpable energy and conviction with which these seven writers engaged with Shakespeare, their moments of utter self-confidence and profound vexation. In uncovering these intense public and private reactions, The Great William connects major writers’ hitherto unremarked scenes of reading Shakespeare with our own.

More books from University of Chicago Press

Cover of the book Persecution and the Art of Writing by Theodore Leinwand
Cover of the book A Companion to The Iliad by Theodore Leinwand
Cover of the book Locations of Buddhism by Theodore Leinwand
Cover of the book Michel Foucault by Theodore Leinwand
Cover of the book Poets and Murder by Theodore Leinwand
Cover of the book Behemoth or The Long Parliament by Theodore Leinwand
Cover of the book A Nation of Neighborhoods by Theodore Leinwand
Cover of the book Desperately Seeking Certainty by Theodore Leinwand
Cover of the book Freedom Is a Constant Struggle by Theodore Leinwand
Cover of the book Dangerous Work by Theodore Leinwand
Cover of the book German Idealism as Constructivism by Theodore Leinwand
Cover of the book Documenting Intimate Matters by Theodore Leinwand
Cover of the book Atlas, or the Anxious Gay Science by Theodore Leinwand
Cover of the book In Search of a Lost Avant-Garde by Theodore Leinwand
Cover of the book Windows into the Soul by Theodore Leinwand
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy