{"product_id":"9780007197903","title":"Shakespeare: The World As A Stage: A Biography of the World’s Greatest Playwright in Elizabethan London","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"product-copy\"\u003e\n\u003ch1\u003eShakespeare: The World As A Stage: A Biography of the World’s Greatest Playwright in Elizabethan London\u003c\/h1\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eSummary\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWilliam Shakespeare, the most celebrated poet in the English language, left behind nearly a million words of text, but his biography has long been a thicket of wild supposition arranged around scant facts.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWilliam Shakespeare, the most celebrated poet in the English language, left behind nearly a million words of text, but his biography has long been a thicket of wild supposition arranged around scant facts. With a steady hand and his trademark wit, Bill Bryson sorts through this colorful muddle to reveal the man himself.Bryson documents the efforts of earlier scholars, from today's most respected academics to eccentrics like Delia Bacon, an American who developed a firm but unsubstantiated conviction that her namesake, Francis Bacon, was the true author of Shakespeare's plays. Emulating the style of his famous travelogues, Bryson records episodes in his research, including a visit to a bunkerlike room in Washington, D.C., where the world's largest collection of First Folios is housed.Bryson celebrates Shakespeare as a writer of unimaginable talent and enormous inventiveness, a coiner of phrases (\"vanish into thin air,\" \"foregone conclusion,\" \"one fell swoop\") that even today have common currency. His Shakespeare is like no one else's—the beneficiary of Bryson's genial nature, his engaging skepticism, and a gift for storytelling unrivaled in our time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"book-details\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDetails\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eISBN:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9780007197903\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 212\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication date:\u003c\/strong\u003e 29 May 2026\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCondition:\u003c\/strong\u003e Used – Very Good\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"New","offer_id":53456559243528,"sku":"9780007197903-NewItem","price":8.89,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"Used – Very Good","offer_id":57909401747720,"sku":"9780007197903-UsedVeryGood","price":7.63,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0928\/5297\/7928\/files\/standardized_cbc67c3c5573df7e46b5909c6882ad7d.jpg?v=1773072186","url":"https:\/\/www.azbooks.co.uk\/products\/9780007197903","provider":"AZ Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}