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oldenglishrose's review against another edition
3.0
The attraction of this book is without doubt the wonderful character and narrative voice that Nye has created for the eponymous Mrs Shakespeare. She is earthy and practical, writing with a straightforward and direct tone which is full of bathos and the perfect contrast to her husband’s elegant, playful tones. I enjoyed the way that she deliberately avoids using metaphor and simile as she considers these dishonest ways of speaking, and her down to earth deconstruction of the sonnet Shakespeare gives to her is a stroke of comic genius.
This book uses one fictional event, the visit of Anne Hathaway to her husband in London in 1594, as a lens through which to examine the possible relationship between Shakespeare and his much neglected wife. Throughout her story are anecdotes and thoughts taken from Shakespeare’s plays and I had fun spotting and identifying these. In particular, this book creates a reason behind Shakespeare’s odd-sounding bequest to his wife of the second best bed. I thought that this section of the novel, focussing on the unusual relations enjoyed my Mr and Mrs Shakespeare in the second best bed, was useful in that it explored the different reactions to and motivations for physical pleasure of the two main characters. However, it did become rather overstated and was a disproportionately long section in what is a short novel. On the whole though, I enjoyed the irreverent tone of the whole book, and found it to be a good read.
This book uses one fictional event, the visit of Anne Hathaway to her husband in London in 1594, as a lens through which to examine the possible relationship between Shakespeare and his much neglected wife. Throughout her story are anecdotes and thoughts taken from Shakespeare’s plays and I had fun spotting and identifying these. In particular, this book creates a reason behind Shakespeare’s odd-sounding bequest to his wife of the second best bed. I thought that this section of the novel, focussing on the unusual relations enjoyed my Mr and Mrs Shakespeare in the second best bed, was useful in that it explored the different reactions to and motivations for physical pleasure of the two main characters. However, it did become rather overstated and was a disproportionately long section in what is a short novel. On the whole though, I enjoyed the irreverent tone of the whole book, and found it to be a good read.
redhickory's review against another edition
1.0
This has been described as a “modern masterpiece”; if so, clearly I just don’t get it, as I found it irritating and tedious.
It is supposedly written by Anne Hathaway, 7 years after her husband’s death. She talks of her dislike for “posey” and metaphor and her strong preference for plain language; then proceeds to drop metaphors and similes. I found the modern language and expressions used annoying, granted it was type-set in an older style font, so presumably that should have sufficed for setting it in a certain period...
The author aims to explain the expression “second-best bed” which Shakespeare leaves his wife. I really liked the premise, the idea of hearing from Anne’s POV is intriguing. However the way Nye attempts to provide us the answers to several literary mysteries and the suggestion that Shakespeare trialed the plots for his plays in the “best bed” means the book ends up basically being a literary dirty joke.
It is full of allusions and those who have read or studied Shakespeare will get more out of it than those who haven’t, and no doubt many would find it witty and well done but I'm not one of them.
It is supposedly written by Anne Hathaway, 7 years after her husband’s death. She talks of her dislike for “posey” and metaphor and her strong preference for plain language; then proceeds to drop metaphors and similes. I found the modern language and expressions used annoying, granted it was type-set in an older style font, so presumably that should have sufficed for setting it in a certain period...
The author aims to explain the expression “second-best bed” which Shakespeare leaves his wife. I really liked the premise, the idea of hearing from Anne’s POV is intriguing. However the way Nye attempts to provide us the answers to several literary mysteries and the suggestion that Shakespeare trialed the plots for his plays in the “best bed” means the book ends up basically being a literary dirty joke.
It is full of allusions and those who have read or studied Shakespeare will get more out of it than those who haven’t, and no doubt many would find it witty and well done but I'm not one of them.
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