"Everything About the Bard"

D. L. Johanyak's Shakespeare's World presents the Elizabethan artist's life and works in its proper milieu. Too often students, teachers, and interested readers must forage through multiple tomes to seek knowledge about the ancestral, artistic, historical, literary, philosophical, religious, and social factors vital to completely understand the famous bard and his timeless poems and plays.

How wonderful to find all of the above carefully organized in a text that adds basic and critical thinking questions and reearch projects for any solid study of Renaissance literature. In a world that was delighting in the printed world, this author has included the Renaissance relative to eastern and western world events and ideas. Such is the world that enabled William Shakespeare to craft works that address every emotional, physical, and spiritual dilemma central to humanity's existence, then and now. Several artistic and historical photos and a geographical chart, plotting the places about which the Bard wrote, enhance the accompanying facts and analysis.

Presented in simple yet scholarly and comprehensive style, this text should become an essential addition to every Shakespeare curriculum and library. If you are required to study or just plain love to read the works of this unsurpassed author, here is a wonderful book that can only enhance that reading experience.

Finely done, D. L. Johanyak!

Reviewed by Viviane Crystal on January 15, 2004

Reviewed by Viviane Crystal
Courtesy Crystal Reviews
Posted January 15, 2004

Summary

This book is about the world inhabited by Shakespeare and his peers, from the midland town of Stratford-upon-Avon to distant islands of the South Pacific. Shakespeare's World opens the door to readers who are curious about the Bard and his world, providing an easy-to-understand overview of the time period and key events that impacted or were impacted by Shakespeare's writing. This comprehensive, exciting, and approachable book provides colorful yet simple descriptions of Shakespeare's life, Tudor England, Renaissance Europe, and global colonialism during the 16th and early 17th centuries. Written to help readers explore Shakespeare's life and works, the book offers insights into the writing of Shakespeare and his contemporaries.