The Age of Shakespeare
Frank Kermode
While respecting Frank Kermode as a scholar, I always come away from reading his books feeling a bit let down. It’s hard to say what the point of this short book is, since it says very little about the “age” of Shakespeare, isn’t a biography (it only deals with Shakespeare’s professional life), and runs through the canon so quickly it doesn’t make the grade as literary criticism. As a general introduction to Shakespeare’s work it helps to put the plays in context, but most student editions already do a good job of that. Fine as far as it goes, but nothing interesting or new.
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