Shakespearean by Robert McCrum
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Shakespearean: On Life & Language in Times of Disruption
By Robert McCrum
Picador, 2020
During his long recovery from a life-altering stroke, author Robert McCrum found refuge in the writings of William Shakespeare. At first, the words of the Bard were “almost the only words that made sense” to him. As McCrum’s convalescence progressed, longer passages from some of his most-loved plays began to “supply a running commentary to the inner dialogue of the self.” Finally, as he writes, “The Complete Works became my book of life.”
In his book Shakespearean: On Life and Language in Times of Disruption, McCrum recognizes that the comfort he found in the words of Shakespeare during his illness is available to the globe more broadly. “From my own personal history,” he explains, “I know that, in states of psychological need or distress, Shakespeare’s can become the voice to which we listen.” At a time when we face the chaos of the end of Donald Trump’s administration, the upheaval of Brexit, the continuing crisis of COVID-19, and the disaster of climate change, McCrum argues that we can turn to Shakespeare, especially since Shakespeare himself was writing during a period of great disruption. “The dread of plague, invasion, civil dissension, plot and counterplot at court affected every citizen” in Shakespeare’s era, mirroring the pain of our modern generation. Shakespeare constantly can remind us of the “humane version of self,” an empathetic and timeless vision that McCrum attributes directly to the Bard.
Although McCrum frames his narrative as a quest to understand why Shakespeare is relevant in the chaos of today’s world, he is interested more broadly in “the making, and perpetual remaking” of the person whom he crowns “the greatest writer who ever lived.” McCrum’s primary question is how Shakespeare became not only a playwright from centuries long past but instead a still-immediate source for understanding humanity: “Why do the collected works of an Elizabethan writer continue to speak to us as if they were written yesterday?” What allows him to speak throughout time? In other words, as McCrum words it, how did Shakespeare become Shakespearean?
In his quest to answer this large question, McCrum attempts to weave together themes from Shakespeare’s personal biography (although he acknowledges how insufficient our knowledge is on this topic) with a deep and personal engagement with many of the plays and poems. Occasionally the order of discussions is confusing. The book’s conversational tone might indicate that readers not particularly well versed the plays of Shakespeare as well as in Elizabethan history more broadly might find McCrum’s text accessible. Unfortunately, this assumption is at least partially untrue. The author assumes that readers will understand references from a wide variety of time periods and plays, embedded in a narrative that follows not chronology but instead a thematic structure. Despite that limitation, McCrum’s discussions of both Shakespeare’s biography and his plays are smart and full of not only thoughtful insight but great wit.
McCrum describes his own journey as a fan and follower—“a Shakespearean,” to use the other meaning of the title word—who not only reads and rereads the plays but regularly attends staged productions in the company of his Shakespeare Club. Over their many years together, the members have seen a wide variety of performers in an array of different settings. They have had opportunities to watch Derek Jacobi in an intimate production at the Donmar, to see Phyllida Lloyd’s all-female staging of Julius Caesar, to hear Harriet Wilson’s performance of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, and to arrange a special meeting with Simon Russell Beale during his run as the title character in King Lear at the National Theatre. McCrum is at his absolute best as he describes the pleasure and excitement of watching various actors and theatres across the globe interpret these timeless plays and allow them to speak anew.
Readers who are searching for a strong analysis of Shakespeare’s plays might be better served by Emma Smith’s recent This is Shakespeare. Those who are interested in the resonances of Shakespeare’s plays during times of political crisis might appreciate James Shapiro’s Shakespeare in a Divided Nation more than McCrum’s book. But Shakespearean shines because it provides an intensely personal and engaging account of life lived with Shakespeare at its core.
—Hannah Joyner is a book reviewer and independent historian living in Washington, D.C. Her work includes Unspeakable: The Story of Junius Wilson (with Susan Burch) and From Pity to Pride: Growing Up Deaf in the Old South. You can find her on BookTube at https://www.youtube.com/c/HannahsBooks.