Shakespeare's Lost Kingdom: The True History of Shakespeare and Elizabeth

Shakespeare's Lost Kingdom: The True History of Shakespeare and Elizabeth

by Charles Beauclerk (Author)

Synopsis

It is perhaps the greatest story never told: the truth behind the most enduring works of English literature. Who was the man behind Hamlet, King Lear, and the sonnets? In Shakespeare's Lost Kingdom, critically acclaimed historian Charles Beauclerk pulls off an enchanting feat, humanizing the bard who for centuries has remained beyond our grasp. Beauclerk has spent more than two decades researching the authorship question, and he convincingly argues that if the plays and poems of Shake-speare were discovered today, we would see them for what they are--shocking political works written by a court insider, someone whose status and anonymity shielded him from repression in an unstable time of armada and reformation. But the author's unique status and identity were swept under the rug after his death. The official history--of an uneducated Stratfordian merchant writing in obscurity and of a virginal queen married to her country--dominated for centuries. Shakespeare's Lost Kingdom delves deep into the conflicts and personalities of Elizabethan England, as well as into the plays themselves, to tell the true story of the Soul of the Age. You'll never look at Shakespeare the same way again.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 448
Edition: First Edition
Publisher: Grove Press
Published: Apr 2010

ISBN 10: 0802119409
ISBN 13: 9780802119407

Media Reviews
Beauclerk has not only scandalized professors throughout the English departments of the world's schools and universities, he has thrown down the gauntlet to historians as well ... and he has garnered supporters in this long-simmering debate. --The Boston Globe Beauclerk's learned, deep scholarship, compelling research, engaging style and convincing interpretation won me completely. He has made me view the whole Elizabethan world afresh. The plays glow with new life, exciting and real, infused with the soul of a man too long denied his inheritance. --Sir Derek Jacobi An intriguing book that proposes another forceful argument in this age old debate. Beauclerk's detailed exploration divides the mythical notions from the historical truths. You will have a hard time putting this book down. --Roland Emmerich Charles Beauclerk is an engaging, learned, and engrossing speaker. On the subject of Shakespeare, they don't come any better. --William F. Buckley Jf. An extraordinary and controversial interpretation of Shakespeare's origins, which certainly provokes much thought. A radical analysis of Shakespeare's text, leading to a conclusion which is bound to amaze the reader and the scholar. Who was Shakespeare? --Steven Berkoff Captivating ... Beauclerk writes persuasively, mixing history with quotes from Shakespeare's works in a style that's far from the overly-academic manner you might expect for such a detailed literary and historical analysis. As the pieces of his theory come together, even the most ardent adherent to Stratfordian mythology (that a lowly son of a glove-maker from Stratford-upon-Avon was Shakespeare) may find themselves having second thoughts. --Kevin Lauderdale, Author Magazine [The authorship question] stands as one of the great undiscovered lands of Shakespearean research, full of resounding insights into the plays we love so well ... Charles Beauclerk must be one of the most learned speakers on the Earl of Oxford. He is passionate and gracious about his subject. --Mark Rylance, First Artistic Director of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre Charles Beauclerk is eloquent and persuasive in his defense of the thesis that the Earl of Oxford wrote the works of William Shakespeare. --Ambassador Paul H. Nitze, The Nitze School, Johns Hokins University