Book Review: "Soul of the Age: The Life, Mind and World of William Shakespeare" by Jonathan Bate

I love my books about Shakespeare, one of my favourites from the last five years has to be James Shapiro's Shakespeare in a Divided America which was really enjoyable. Apart from that, a few years' ago when I was in university I read an amazing book about Shakespeare and others from his time called Radical Tragedy and that was by Joanthan Dollimore. I have carried that book around ever since - it is simply fascinating to read once and then read again. Apart from that, I have read Peter Ackroyd's biography of Shakespeare and then obviously, you have got the amazing book Shakespeare's Restless World by Neil MacGregor. All these books on Shakespeare are fascinating and obviously, alongside all of these is this brilliant book entitled: Soul of the Age: The Life, Mind and World of William Shakespeare by Jonathan Bate.

This book opens by covering the life of Shakespeare, dividing up what we know happened, what we think might have happened and what has been spectulated to have happened in various periods of time. I think that this is a great way of doing things because it allows the reader to compartmentalise the information into what are truths, what are half-truths, what is believed but maybe it didn't happen and finally, what definitely did not happen. As we move across Shakespeare's life I think we as readers can all see various chunks missing in which academics try desperately to fill the gaps because of the fact Shakespeare's life was not as well documented as that of his contemporaries.

As we move on through the book though the one chapter that I really enjoyed was called: The School of Prospero where it covers the different contextuals from the day in comparison with Shakespeare's epic The Tempest. One thing I liked was the writer's ability to state that there were already texts out on utopian visions and with that, we get this brilliant descriptive section on Thomas More's Utopia plus the different theories, briefly surrounding it (based on whether it is a presentation of irony). The ideas of Renaissance Humanism are a huge part of this chapter, commenting on people like Erasmus and Michel de Montaigne. We get an in-depth analysis of The Tempest in the context of its own day. What Shakespeare did, what he might have done and what he caused are huge parts of this analysis that are not to be missed out for fear of lacking information as you move on.

Obviously, what Shakespeare book would be complete without some sentimentality around the sonnets? Jonathan Bate gives us a brilliant analysis on the way the sonnets present love and its ideals complete with contemporary resources from Shakespeare's own day about and considering the topic of courtly love. We get how this has been also displayed in some of Shakespeare's most iconic plays and how, in the end, courtly love may not be all it is cracked up to be. Jonathan Bate gives us an incredible analysis of all of this and so much more in the book.

In conclusion, this has to be one of my favourite books on Shakespeare that I have read in a very long time. It has really opened my eyes on the context of Shakespeare in comparison to his contemporary writers, not just the playwrights, but also the nonfiction writers, the chroniclers, and so many more people. Even though I did so much Shakespeare at university, I still feel like I am learning something new about him every day and as long as I'm doing that, I will continue to idolise William Shakespeare. Jonathan Bate, Shakespeare fans say thank you for this beautiful book of research and appreciation on the bard.