Greatness Thrust Upon Him

No one seems to have doubted that William Shakespeare lived and wrote his plays and poetry until about 1845, when Delia Bacon, an American playwright, began to lecture on the possibility that his plays were the work of Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis Bacon. Though often booed off the stage, she also found followers, who took up a variety of anti-Stratfordian theories in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, some of which persist today. Among those who have questioned Shakespeare’s authorship are Mark Twain, Henry James, Sigmund Freud, Helen Keller, Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles, and Derek Jacobi. Particularly common in the fiction of Shakespeare-deniers are portraits of the playwright as a buffoon, a plagiarist, an oaf, or a devious scoundrel.

The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel Series

Michael Scott
New York : Delacorte Press, 2007-2012

Written by an authority on folklore and mythology, the six book series takes place over a period of a month in the present day and across parallel “Shadowrealms.” It tells the story of 15-year old twins Sophie and Josh Newman caught up in a battle of influence and destiny between the forces of good, the Elders, and the immortal humans Nicholas Flamel and wife Perenelle, and the Dark Elders working through archenemy Dr. John Dee. Considered to be the long-sought after “twins of the prophecy” both sides seek to control the twins magical awakening that is seen as central to the survival (the Flamels) or destruction (Dee) of the human world. Continue reading →

2000's Greatness Thrust Upon Him Sanders - Woolf

The Shakespeare Mask: A Novel

Newton Frohlich
Wellfleet, MA: Blue Bird Press, 2015

According to Edward de Vere, Will Shakespeare, is “cunning if uneducated,” selling his name to the Earl for sixty pounds, enough to buy the best house in Stratford or a coat of arms for his “Pa.” The scenes between the earl and the glover’s son communicate a social and educational chasm between them. De Vere’s character is unfailingly polite and patient, while Shakespeare is hesitant and bumptious (“Don’t have no call for kid gloves in Stratford”), which underlines Frohlich’s argument for de Vere as ‘real’ Shakespeare. According to reviews, fans of historical fiction enjoy The Shakespeare Mask as a taste of the sixteenth century, but complain that the work is didactic and the dialogue too modern. Followers of the authorship debate may be interested in how Frohlich, a former lawyer, turns the arguments in support of de Vere’s candidacy into narrative, much the way defense attorneys create narratives for juries in the attempt to create reasonable doubt. –CP

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2000's Clarke - Furness Greatness Thrust Upon Him