"I, Will, Always Love You!"
George Santayana warned leaders and citizens alike, "Those
who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
Karen Harper's Will Shakespeare goes one step further with
a quote that deeply resonates throughout this novel
narrated by his "real" wife, Anne Whateley, "The past is
prologue. All is true." Beginning with a youthful romance and secret wedding, Anne
records her love/hate relationship with Will as he
struggles to escape the glove-maker trade and become a
poet/playwright in a world that sharply degrades and damns
the latter trade. But creativity and love are the the true
prologue that unites Will and Anne through multiple
tragedies such as the suicide death of a beloved friend,
Kat, over lost love; the death of Anne's father; Will's
forced, loveless marriage to Anne Hathaway; and far too
numerous other family member deaths. Readers will enter the world of Queen Elizabeth I, the
Gloriana monarch revered by Anne but mistrusted by Will.
For it is widely believed that the Queen's Players, the
dramatists Thomas Kyd, Ben Jonson, John Lyly, George Peele
and especially Christopher Marlowe are perhaps spies for
the monarch in one way or another. Still their talent
places them in the forefront of Will's competition as he
slowly but surely earns his fame as poet and playwright in
his own right. The Earl of Southampton becomes Will's
patron through Anne's mediation, a relationship that
becomes a liability when the Earl's relationship connects
him to the political rebellion led by the Earl of Essex. These glorious pages teem with the creative process Will
and Anne share in writing and producing Will's famous
plays, beginning with Love's Labour's Lost, written for
Anne, a tribute and tragic look at their relationship.
Friends are innumerable who help Will obtain the monies he
needs to begin his literary career which flourishes. Anne
and Will survive the devastating Black Plague and the
treachery of former friends and foes. The tension never lags in this most tempestuous
relationship fraught with fear of discovery and jealousy,
the conflicts a catalyst for even more vibrant, vivacious
plays and poetry that thrill and entrance theatre-lovers
from the Queen and subsequent King James to the majority
of common English citizens. Yes, history is prologue, building and forging historical
and personal relationships that endure because of Will and
Anne Whateley's writing, a searing sword piercing every
thought, word and deed to expose the truth defining the
essence of human beings. Mistress Shakespeare is a beautiful, well-plotted,
intricately characterized novel that will become a classic
for sure of superb historical fiction! Reviewed by Viviane Crystal on February 16, 2009
Reviewed by Viviane Crystal
Courtesy Crystal Reviews
Posted February 18, 2009
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