Still the One

Shakespeare After All, by Marjorie Garber (Pantheon, 1,008 pp., $40)

OF all the books that have been written about Shakespeare, is this the best? Shakespeare has entered our consciousness and is there to stay. In this volume, Marjorie Garber deals with all the plays, and does so comprehensively. Her scholarship is superb, and she is alert to the movement of Shakespeare’s verse, its rhythms, pauses, texture expressing the whole mind of a character; and there is nothing modish here, no French theory, no ideology, no axes to grind. Shakespeare after all, she says with a smile. And that’s enough.

About the Author

Jeffrey Hart

Jeffrey Hart is a contributor to National Review.

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Shakespeare After All, by Marjorie Garber (Pantheon, 1,008 pp., $40)

OF all the books that have been written about Shakespeare, is this the best? Shakespeare has entered our consciousness and is there to stay. In this volume, Marjorie Garber deals with all the plays, and does so comprehensively. Her scholarship is superb, and she is alert to the movement of Shakespeare’s verse, its rhythms, pauses, texture expressing the whole mind of a character; and there is nothing modish here, no French theory, no ideology, no axes to grind. Shakespeare after all, she says with a smile. And that’s enough.