Michiko Kakutani
There are no obscure invocations of the French philosopher Michel Foucault in these pages, no pseudo-Marxist readings of Shakespeare's plays. Instead, in the opening sections of this book, Mr. Greenblatt succinctly and vividly conjures up the Elizabethan world in which young Will came of age, showing how the religious and political upheavals of the day, as well as contemporaneous aesthetic conventions, shaped his sensibility and his work.
— The New York Times
Arthur Kirsch
… Greenblatt has unusual talents. He is learned, he marshals an enormous amount of detail in the book, and he depicts the fabric of Elizabethan life, both its paranoia and festivities, compellingly. He is a masterful storyteller; his prose is elegant and subtle, if sometimes slippery; and his imagination is rich and interesting. When he focuses more exclusively on Shakespeare's texts, as he does in his chapter on the sonnets, he is a brilliant critic. One can see why Will in the World is a nominee for the National Book Award.
— The Washington Post
From the Publisher
"A magnificent achievement."— Denis Donoghue Wall Street Journal
"Vividly written, richly detailed, and insightful from first chapter to last…certain to secure a place among the essential studies of the greatest of all writers."— William E. Cain Boston Sunday Globe
"Greenblatt’s masterful biography is like traveling back in time to see firsthand how a small-town Englishman became the greatest writer of all time."— Adam Morgan Esquire
"Dazzling and subtle."— Richard Lacayo Time
"So engrossing, clearheaded, and lucid that its arrival is not just welcome but cause for celebration."— Dan Cryer Newsday
2004 National Book Critics Circle Award, Short-listed
2005 Pulitzer Prize, Short-listed
