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Overview
Did you know the name Jessica was first used in The Merchant of Venice?
Or that Freud's idea of a healthy sex life came from Shakespeake?
Nearly four hundred years after his death, Shakespeare permeates our everyday lives: from the words we speak to the teenage heartthrobs we worship to the political rhetoric spewed by the twenty-four-hour news cycle.
In the pages of this wickedly clever little book, Esquire columnist Stephen Marche uncovers the hidden influence of Shakespeare in our culture, including these fascinating tidbits:
- Shakespeare coined over 1,700 words, including hobnob, glow, lackluster, and dawn.
- Paul Robeson's 1943 performance as Othello on Broadway was a seminal moment in black history.
- Tolstoy wrote an entire book about Shakespeare's failures as a writer.
- In 1936, the Nazi Party tried to claim Shakespeare as a Germanic writer.
- Without Shakespeare, the book titles Infinite Jest, The Sound and the Fury, and Brave New World wouldn't exist.
Stephen Marche has cherry-picked the sweetest and most savory historical footnotes from Shakespeare's work and life to create this unique celebration of the greatest writer of all time.
Synopsis
Shakespeare is everywhere
Nearly four hundred years after his death, Shakespeare permeates our everyday lives: from the words we speak to the teenage heartthrobs we worship to the political rhetoric spewed by the twenty-four-hour news cycle. In the pages of this wickedly clever little book, Esquire columnist Stephen Marche uncovers the hidden influence of Shakespeare in our culture, including these fascinating tidbits:
Shakespeare coined more than 1,700 words, including hobnob, glow, lackluster, and dawn. Paul Robeson's 1943 performance as Othello on Broadway was a seminal moment in black history. Tolstoy wrote an entire book about Shakespeare's failures as a writer. In 1936, the Nazi Party tried to claim Shakespeare as a Germanic writer. Without Shakespeare, the book titles Infinite Jest, The Sound and the Fury, and Brave New World wouldn't exist. The name Jessica was first used in The Merchant of Venice. Freud's idea of a healthy sex life came directly from the Bard.Stephen Marche has cherry-picked the sweetest and most savory historical footnotes from Shakespeare's work and life to create this unique celebration of the greatest writer of all time.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
According to novelist and Esquire columnist Marche, Shakespeare was "the most influential person who ever lived," and his works frame how we understand the world. Obama, for instance, obliquely and redemptively replayed the story of Othello in the 2008 election, and for many Americans, he is the noble Moor, a courageous, charismatic outsider. Actor John Wilkes Booth apparently borrowed heavily from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar for his theatrical assassination of Lincoln. Shakespeare enriched the English language by coining hundreds of words, like "assassination," "bandit," "hobnob," and "traditional," and expressions with amazing staying power, like "green-eyed," "tongue-tied," and "dead as a doornail." Marche claims that Shakespeare's frankness about sexuality has done more to foster open attitudes than even Freud (who gained his humanism from Shakespeare). Romeo and Juliet's profound portraits of teenagers in all their absurdity, nastiness, and "terrifying beauty" have shaped our understanding of adolescence; and Shakespeare, the author claims, is the dominant influence in Hollywood and was wildly popular in Nazi Germany. Marche's essay is informative and entertaining, but also rambling. None of this adds up to Marche's claim that Shakespeare is more important than Obama or John Wilkes Booth or Freud. And only the Bard-obsessed will need a whole chapter on Shakespeare-inspired starling overpopulation. Illus. (May)Associated Press Staff
"How Shakespeare Changed Everything will provide the details and keep you amused while it does. A teacher who makes the class read the book won’t get much backlash from the sourpuss who calls Shakespeare dull and out-of-date."Bookreporter.com
"How Shakespeare Changed Everything is a joyful little book that is a love note to the greatest writer in the English language: never syrupy or over the top, it’s a pleasure to read."New York Journal of Books
"How Shakespeare Changed Everything is fun and informative, with more than its share of ‘Aha!’ moments packed between its diminutive covers. Mr. Marche’s thesis is compelling and probably more true than we ever imagined."Quill & Quire
"[A] charming tribute...This highly accessible paean to someone whom Marche describes as "the world’s most powerful writer" serves as yet another reminder of the impact Shakespeare has had on culture worldwide."Huntington News
"There’s not a drop of boredom in this little book."Wicked Local
"In his highly readable, never ponderous, sometimes funny, often insightful new book, [Stephen Marche] credits the Bard with everything from shaping American history (the rise of Obama, the fall of Lincoln) to the very enjoyable sex you had last night."National Post
"A sprightly, erudite sampling of Shakespeare’s influence on absolutely everything."A. J. Jacobs
"This is a wonderful book about seeing the world through Shakespeare-tinted glasses. You’ll never look at the food court, Justin Beiber—or, for that matter, the English language—the same way again."Maria Popova
"An ambitious and entertaining new book...[How Shakespeare Changed Everything] explores the many, often unsuspected ways in which the great playwright shaped just about every facet of contemporary culture."Tom Junod
"We are lucky that Stephen Marche had his mind blown by Shakespeare; we are luckier still that in making the argument for Shakespeare’s inextinguishable relevance, he has given us a contact high."Kirkus Reviews
Esquire columnist and novelist Marche (Shining at the Bottom of the Sea, 2007, etc.) argues that Shakespeare is the most influential human being—in nearly every arena—who ever lived.
In what often reads like a pep talk delivered by an enthusiastic teacher, the author, who completed a doctorate on Shakespeare at the University of Toronto, focuses on key ways that the Bard has altered our lives and our world. Pegging his observations, for the most part, to specific plays, Marche shows how Paul Robeson's wildly popularOthello on Broadway in the early 1940s perhaps jump-started the civil-rights movement. He reminds us that Shakespeare contributed countless words to the English language and supplied quotations for people of all political persuasions—none more so, he notes, than Sen. Robert Byrd, who frequently seasoned his otherwise soporific speeches with Shakespearean salt. (The author also notes the popularity of Shakespeare in Nazi Germany and in Stalinist Russia.) Marche explores the gleeful, unashamed sexiness of Shakespeare and the importance ofRomeo and Julietto our modern conception of adolescence. "People just love," he writes, "to watch a couple of dumb kids make out and die." The author connects the murder of Caesar—via the Booths—to the assassination of Lincoln, links the current popularity of skull imagery toHamletand writes wryly about Tolstoy, the most notable writer to hate Shakespeare. He also retells the story about a Bardolater bringing the first starlings to Central Park because Shakespeare once mentioned the bird. Marche writes energetically about the various images of the Bard—though, oddly, doesn't discuss a current favorite, the Cobbe portrait. He also attacks the anti-Stratfordians, whom he labels "crazies." Only occasionally does the author commit an error—e.g., he quotes lines fromHamletthat he says the Prince addressed to his mother; nope, they were for Ophelia.
Informed, ebullient and profoundly respectful.