This volume takes readers into the wonderful world of the Bard. For scholars, theatre lovers, students - everyone - this book wraps nearly 400 years of "Bardology" into a concise package. The authors examine the whole dramatic canon, play by play, including works of questionable authorship. The long poems and sonnets are also covered. The book includes inside stories on theatre and film productions, "alternate" interpretations of the plays, Shakespeare's status around the world, the clubs and societies, the mysterious life, even the question that has plagued critics for 100 years: whether Shakespeare wrote the works attributed to him.

Author Biography

Dick Riley's novels and plays include collaboration on the best-selling Black Sunday (with Thomas Harris), Rite of Expiation, and the drama Middleman Out. He lives in White Plains, New York. Pam McAllister is the author of ten books, including three others in Continuum's Bedside, Bathtub &Armchair Companion series which she co-authored with Dick Riley, on Shakespeare (2001), Sherlock Holmes (1999), and Agatha Christie (1979). Her other books include Death Defying: Dismantling the Execution Machinery in 21st Century U.S.A. (Continuum, 2003) about ending capital punishment and two books about women's use of nonviolent action for social justice. In 1982, she edited the groundbreaking anthology Reweaving the Web of Life: Feminism and Nonviolence (New Society Publishers), which the Village Voice called "one of the most important books you'll ever read." She currently writes a column for The Progressive Christian magazine.