I never knew there was a conspiracy theory as to Shakespeare’s identity until a few years ago when a book was published titled Shakespeare by Another Name: A Biography of Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, The Man Who Was Shakespeare by Mark Anderson. The cover depicts a portrait of Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, mixed with the famous painting of William Shakespeare. Intrigued, I purchased the audiobook version and listened to the first disc. This was in 2009 (the year our home was destroyed by flood) and the rest of that audiobook was inside the house. I have to say, the first part of the book was quite convincing. It goes over Shakespeare’s childhood as a glove maker’s son with only a very basic education, and mentions the fact that he never traveled outside of England as did most affluent young men (The Grand Tour). So, how did this uneducated and untraveled actor/playwright create politically charged masterpieces based sometimes in other countries? It is an on-going debate–there is even a Shakespeare Oxfordian Society. You can read more about the theory on the very detailed Wikipedia page. There are many more books on the subject available, not all pointing to the Earl of Oxford.
Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? by James Shapiro
The Truth Will Out: Unmasking the Real Shakespeare by Brenda James
Shakespeare’s Lost Kingdom: The True History of Shakespeare and Elizabeth by Charles Beauclerk
These are just a few examples of works studying the Shakespeare question. Back to the subject of this article: What about fiction? I’ve read a few novels on or including Shakespeare as a character. I was surprised to find him as just William Shakespeare in one of Jean Plaidy’s Elizabeth I novels, but perhaps I shouldn’t have been because her writing was never embellished by rumor or questionable ‘facts’. What I did notice is that be didn’t seem especially brilliant; just a minor character on the very fringes of the court.
I read a YA novel, Loving Will Shakespeare by Carolyn Meyer, which follows the life of Shakespeare’s wife, who lived separately from him raising their three children while he was away in London. It focuses mainly on their youth and courtship, however, and is an interesting read on the way of life of non-royals during the late 16th century. You can read my review here.
If you’re a long time reader of my blog, you may remember several posts raving about The Secret Confessions of Anne Shakespeare by Arliss Ryan–another novel casting Shakespeare’s wife as the main character. In this one she is not just a country wife left at home. She travels to London, posing as Shakespeare’s sister and ends up co-writing many of the plays. It may sound unrealistic, but I challenge you to give it a shot, because I found the way the author intertwined the timeline of the plays with the events in the characters lives to be extraordinary. I was also very impressed with the intelligent prose and this is one of my favorite historical novels to this day. You can read my review here. I ended up meeting the author at a local bookstore and had my copy signed!
One that I’ve still not read is Mistress Shakespeare by Karen Harper. This one is about another lady, Anne Whateley, who many assume to have been a rival of his wife as her name was recorded in a marriage document with Shakespeare’s before his marriage to Anne Hathaway. She is also attributed with one of the “Dark Ladies” of his sonnets. You can read the Wikipedia article on her here.
Synopsis of Mistress Shakespeare:
“Dark-haired and strong-willed, Elizabethan beauty Anne Whateley takes up her pen to divulge the intimate details of her daring life and her great love, William Shakespeare. As historical records show, Anne Whateley of Temple Grafton was betrothed to Will just days before he was forced to wed the pregnant Anne Hathaway of Shottery.
Their secret wedding in a country church brings together two passionate souls whose union survives separation, betrayal, and the barbs of small-town gossips. From rural Stratford-Upon-the-Avon to teeming London, Anne and Will struggle to forge his career and remain safe from Elizabeth I’s campaign to hunt down secret Catholics. Persecution and plague, insurrection and inferno, friends and foes, even executions, all come to life in Anne’s heart-rending story.
Spanning half a century of Elizabethan and Jacobean history and sweeping from the lowest reaches of society to the royal court, this richly textured novel tells the real story of Shakespeare in love.”
A novel I started reading earlier this year, but put it on hold only because I was so behind in my ‘must read’ books, is My Father Had a Daughter by Grace Tiffany. I need to continue with it because I found it a very intriguing story. The author also has a novel titled Will (read the synopsis below).
“Will Shakespeare has left Stratford for London and pitched himself headlong into the chaotic, perilous world of the theater. Through raw will-and an amazing gift for words-he raises himself from poor player to master playwright. But as his success earns him great pleasure and adoration from others, it also draws the jealous wrath of Christopher Marlowe, a baby-faced genius whose anger is as punishing as his poetry is sweet…”
You can also find novels based on Shakespeare’s plays, such as O, Juliet by Robin Maxwell, Juliet by Anne Fortier, Lady Macbeth by Susan Fraser King, Lady Macbeth’s Daughter and Ophelia by Lisa Klein and The Gentleman Poet by Kathryn Johnson.
If you’re interested in learning a little of the beginnings of one of Shakespeare’s most popular works, you can read my article Versions of Romeo and Juliet Throughout History, which has been very popular in Google searches.
Feel free to add your own suggestions for Shakespeare fiction and non-fiction, conspiracy theories as to the true identity of the writer and any other related comments!
