Shakespeare's Kings

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

This is a painstakingly sensible book, suitable for die-hard Shakespeare lovers. The author of the massive, three-part Byzantium turns here to the equally byzantine world of late medieval England, providing a complex context for the bard's nine Histories (including the recently authenticated Edward III) and asking: How accurate were Shakespeare's royal portraits? The canvas stretches from the Hundred Years War to the end of the Wars of the Roses. Norwich, structuring his book as political narrative, helpfully fills in gaps between the action of the plays. The book will be useful as a historical primer for those already familiar with the plays (or films: many will associate Henry V with Kenneth Branagh, or Richard III with Ian McKellen), but it lacks intellectual muscle, and the awkwardly intermittent analyses of accuracy obscure the natural flair of the author's prose. Norwich is conscientious in reconstructing detail, but his larger claims are meager. We learn, for instance, that Shakespeare has a "cavalier approach to chronology" and that his portraits sometimes fall prey to personal prejudice, but that with the great exception of Richard III (already vilified by Thomas More), the bold historical outlines are generally on the money. In his epilogue, the author briefly places the Histories against the backdrop of new Elizabethan self-confidence: England, "the only possible hero" in this long, sordid drama, craved the telling of its tale in the most accessible literary form of the day. Yet the elusive intellectual prey--the making of national identity--escapes through the thickets of history. (Mar.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Library Journal

From extraordinary times came extraordinary drama--Shakespeare's historical plays--and Norwich's goal is to provide a nonspecialist audience with an assessment of their historical accuracy, most notably regarding the Richard and Henry plays. Although Norwich (A Short History of Byzantium) presents an interesting account of Shakespeare's sources, he does not always give a clear picture of what, other than dramatic license, might have influenced Shakespeare to paint English history in a certain way. (That Shakespeare's history conformed to the propaganda needs of the Tudor-Stuart dynasties should have been made explicit.) Indeed, Norwich's last chapter, which provides an interesting analysis of the conflicting images of Richard III and also places the play into good historical context, is the most successful in meeting the book's stated purpose. In addition, Norwich often goes into great detail about the history of the English kings without reference to his main theme. Appropriate for a general readership at larger public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/1/99.]--Frederic Krome, Jacob Rader Marcus Ctr. of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Peter Levi

He is brilliant…He writes like the most civilized modern diplomat attached by a freak of time to the Byzantine court, with intimate knowledge, tactful judgment, and a consciousness of the surviving monument.
—The Independent

Frank Kermode

With exemplary patience and good humor…John Julius Norwich deals equably and intelligibly with several generations of very rich, greedy, blood-thirsty aristocratic beliefs, filling in his pages with ruthless treacheries, beheaded corpses, indiscriminate slaughters, and obscene dynastic marriages…. He handles this long and complex historical narrative with practiced skill.
—The London Sunday Times

Internet Bookwatch

Most surveys of Shakespeare focus on his literary writing and talents: this provides a focus on his history, examining the events and characters in his plays and the realities which inspired them. This is recommended reading for any avid Shakespeare fan as well as college-level students: it examines the nine works which sum England's history of the times and analyzes each in the light of historical questions and background.

Jaroslav Pelikan

Norwich is always on the lookout for the small but revealing detail…the significant anecdote, the bizarre episode. All of these he recounts in a style that consistently entertains and sometimes sparkles, and with an unerring sense of what the Western reader wants to know.
—New York Times Book Review

Michiko Kakutani

[A] lively... highly readable account that one hopes will send readers back to more in-depth studies of the period, and, of course, to Shakespeare's plays.
—The New York Times

Swanson

May not satisfy the agendas of historians or determined Shakespearean scholars, but it definitely provides a historical background to the plays . . . provides information to set a reader thinking . . . more widely about the more subtle relationship between history and drama.
—The New York Times Book Review