Mad About Shakespeare

From Classroom to Theatre to Emergency Room

By: Jonathan Bate

Narrated by: Jonathan Bate

‘Enlightening, moving’ SIR IAN MCKELLEN

From the acclaimed and bestselling biographer Jonathan Bate, a luminous new exploration of Shakespeare and how his themes can untangle comedy and tragedy, learning and loving in our modern lives.

‘The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.’

How does one survive the death of a loved one, the mess of war, the experience of being schooled, of falling in love, of growing old, of losing your mind?

Shakespeare’s world is never too far different from our own ‘permeated with the same tragedies, the same existential questions and domestic worries. In this extraordinary book, Jonathan Bate brings then and now together. He investigates moments of his own life – losses and challenges – and asks whether, if you persevere with Shakespeare, he can offer a word of wisdom or a human insight for any time or any crisis. Along the way we meet actors such as Judi Dench and Simon Callow, and writers such as Dr Johnson, John Keats, Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath, who turned to Shakespeare in their own dark times.

This is a personal story about loss, the black dog of depression, unexpected journeys and the very human things that echo through time, resonating with us all at one point or another.

©2022 Jonathan Bate (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

Fascinating, Brilliant....if you love literature

As an English major who taught Shakespeare for thirty years, I am probably the ideal audience for Mad about Shakespeare, read by the author, Jonathan Bate. I understood that this book was part memoir, but I did not realize that it has a much broader literary approach on other poets and authors he reveres such as Samuel Johnson, Ted Hughes, Virginia Woolf, T.S.Eliot, Robert Lowell, John Clare and others. He also surprisingly puts a great deal of focus on the theatrical productions of Shakespeare he has attended and in some cases produced. I was prepared to be annoyed by this, but found myself fascinated. Bate describes his own educational personal life and relationship with literature weaving his discussions of these classic literary giants through his selected biography. I enjoyed it immensely. Bate has a fine mind and is an exquisite writer. Again, I was at first annoyed by his reedy voice, but his performance was exceptional. If you love literature, I highly recommend this book

Stunning excellence that grows on you

The author is an academic who does a fair bit of name dropping—this professor or that actor or that production—such that I was worried at first. Bear with him—have patience, and you will be rewarded greatly. The author uses literary references (predominantly but not exclusively Shakespeare) to accentuate key moments of his life, and in so doing to point to the role literature plays in living a full life. The last chapter is such a crescendo that I found myself tearing up, and I rarely do that.
If you’ve ever asked yourself what the point is of Shakespeare or literature or even art generally, this is one person’s cogent and compelling response.

Splendid

Absolutely the most delightful book I have listened to, probably, ever. I was swept up in ever word and gained a deeper appreciation for the Bard. I especially enjoyed the authors reading of his work; it just wouldn’t have had the same impact upon me without his voice and articulation.

I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in English literature. I couldn’t unplug.