Product Description

A. D. Nuttall's study of Shakespeare's intellectual preoccupations is a literary tour de force and comes to crown the distinguished career of a Shakespeare scholar. Certain questions engross Shakespeare from his early plays to the late romances: the nature of motive, cause, personal identity and relation, the proper status of imagination, ethics and subjectivity, language and its capacity to occlude and to communicate. Yet Shakespeare's thought, Nuttall demonstrates, is anything but static. The plays keep returning to, modifying, and complicating his creative preoccupations. Nuttall allows us to hear and appreciate the emergent cathedral choir of play speaking to play. By the later stages of Nuttall's book this choir is nearly overwhelming in its power and dimensions. The author does not limit discussion to moments of crucial intellection but gives himself ample space in which to get at the distinctive essence of each work. Much recent historicist criticism has tended to 'flatten' Shakespeare by confining him to the thought-clichés of his time, and this in its turn has led to an implicitly patronizing view of him as unthinkingly racist, sexist, and so on. Nuttall shows us that, on the contrary, Shakespeare proves again and again to be more intelligent and perceptive than his 21st-century readers. This book challenges us to reconsider the relation of great literature to its social and historical matrix. It is also, perhaps, the best guide to Shakespeare's plays available in any language.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #169474 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Review
'The delight of Nuttall's book springs not just from the incisiveness of his ideas but from the deftness with which he unfolds scenes and speeches. It is like walking through the countryside with someone who recognises every bird's song and each wild flower.' --John Carey, The Sunday Times

'Shakespeare was above all interested in the process of making sense of life ... A.D. Nuttall's Shakespeare the Thinker is a marvellously wise and humane account of that mind at work. Always highly intelligent and effortlessly readable, it is a book that draws a firm line under the age of 'theory' in Shakespeare studies.' --Jonathan Bate, The Sunday Telegraph

'A.D. Nuttall is an attentive, intelligent, common-sense reader of the plays. He has a good ear and a subtle mind, and delights in words and the placement of words.' --A.S. Byatt, The Guardian

John Dugdale, The Guardian, April 19, 2008
' ...a series of inspiringly astute and original readings... enjoyably provocative and largely persuasive.'

Sunday Telegraph, 8th April 2007
'... a marvellously wise and humane account... Always highly
intelligent and effortlessly readable.'

Customer Reviews

a great, great book
I had been reading through a number of very good books on Shakespeare over the last couple of years, starting with James Shapiro's terrific "Shakespeare and the Jews" and "1599", as well as Ackroyd's biography. So I'm keen for a good book on Shakespeare, but want something which is accessible and human.

Nuttall's book is concerned with the psychological, moral and philosphical insights underpinning Shakespeare's writing, but writes also in an historical context - commentary on the dramatist's work is complemented by reference to his forbearers in Rome and Greece, as well as his contemporaries; Nuttall also compares Shakespeare with more modern writers and thinkers on occasion, as a means to opening up the discussion without cheapening it.

Get past the first chapter, with its discussion of New Historicism - and so less obviously relevant to a lay reader such as myself, though still very interesting - and this definitely is a great, great book.

It is a passionate and intense and closely-argued work, which traces the development of Shakespeare's concepts of identity and self-awareness in particular through the chronology of his plays.

It is also quite a moving book in the depth of thought and feeling it reveals not only on Shakespeare's part, but on Nuttall's also, especially in its sense of humour.

A book I hope you'll read.

Satisfying and insightful
Terms of reference for this work are established in the introduction where doctrinaire Historicism as a mode of criticism is not approved-historical investigations can make a contribution to cultural understanding but meaning is not determined or exhausted by immediate context. By proceeding in a more or less chronological order of the writing of the plays A.D. Nuttall sees Shakespeare as more than a master of imaginative and emotional effects- Shakespeare is also a thinker who reveals the development and modification of his thoughts in the work, which includes psychological exploration of human consciousness. We are, of course, reminded that Shakespeare is a dramatist and not a philosopher and that as a dramatist he succeeded in asking questions and providing many answers, or possible answers. The book is a satisfying read and is enriched by extensive quotations and references that sit exactly in the text.

joy to read
A.D.Nuttall's Sheakespeare the Thinker was a pure joy to read. His rare gift, in my opinion, is the balanced blend of enthusiasm for his subject and the analytical intelligence with which he penetrates Shakespeare's thought and brings it into a sharper focus. Next to Frank Kermode he is my favourite critic.