William Shakespeare: A Critical Study

About this book

Georg Brandes’s work is a scholarly survey that treats Shakespeare as both a historical figure and a literary artist. The opening pages explain that the three‑volume set was assembled in Copenhagen, with translations by William Archer, Mary Morrison, and Diana White, and that Brandes himself revised the proofs. The first volume begins with a “Biography of Shakespeare, Difficult but Not Impossible,” then proceeds through a systematic catalogue of the playwright’s life, the social and political context of Elizabethan England, and detailed analyses of each drama, from the early histories to the later tragedies and comedies. The author foregrounds the scarcity of primary documents, no letters, only a handful of signatures, and the reliance on contemporary accounts, legal records, and later biographers such as Rowe and Betterton. By laying out this methodological framework, Brandes signals that the book is a critical study rather than a narrative biography, inviting readers to follow his exhaustive, evidence‑based reconstruction of Shakespeare’s career.

The tone is that of a late‑19th‑century German scholar writing in a formal, academic English style, marked by long sentences, extensive footnote‑like digressions, and a penchant for comparative cultural references (e.g., Michelangelo, Cervantes). It assumes familiarity with literary history and an interest in textual criticism, making it most appealing to students of Shakespeare, historians of the Renaissance, and serious readers who enjoy dense, encyclopedic commentary rather than popular introductions.