Book info

• Title Shakespeare on Toast
• Author Ben Crystal
• Year 2008
• Genre Non-fiction

Who's afraid of William Shakespeare? Just about everyone. He wrote too much and what he did write is inaccessible and elitist. Right? Wrong. Shakespeare on Toast knocks the stuffing from the staid old myth of Shakespeare, revealing the man and his plays for what they really are: modern, thrilling and uplifting drama. Actor and author Ben Crystal brings the bright words and colourful characters of the world's greatest hack writer brilliantly to life, handing over the key to Shakespeare's plays, unlocking the so called difficult bits and, astonishingly, finding Shakespeare's own voice amid the poetry. Told in five fascinating Acts, Shakespeare on Toast sweeps the cobwebs from the Bard - from his language, his life, his time - revealing both the man and his work to be relevant, accessible and full of beans.

Thoughts

Shakespeare has always been a bit of an enigma to me. Like most Shakespeare heathens, I don’t mind the odd Romeo and Juliet here and there, and comparing people to a summer’s day is fun, but mostly it’s just too much work. I wanted to read this because it seemed like a nice, friendly introduction to Shakespeare, not taking itself too seriously, and thus I could see if I was missing out on anything good.

After reading, I came to the conclusion that I probably am missing out a lot, but that it really is a bit too much like hard work for me. However, I really enjoyed this book, it opens up the myths of Shakespeare, dusts them down and then rips them to shreds. I love that it doesn’t try to make Shakespeare a big literary god to be bowed down to. He’s a genius, no question, but his work is not something to be scared of, it’s there to be picked at and pored over and, most of all, enjoyed.

A lot of this introduction to Shakespeare is involved in setting the scene for where the works take place. To get your head around Shakespeare and his plays, you really need to imagine what it was like to be an Elizabethan. Comparing the plays to soap operas and really digging in to why the witches were so terrifying was fascinating to me.

When it came to the nitty gritty, I was interested to read about the format of poetry, about the fact that Shakespeare was guiding pauses and stage directions simply through the rhythm of his writing, but then actually dissecting a scene failed to get me as excited as the writer may have hoped. I really recommend this book as a good place to start for Shakespeare newbies, though, because you may just find it opens up a whole new world for you!

Rating: 4 / 5