A Woman's History Turned Upside Down

Pic from Amazon.com

Finally! A new book on my nightstand and I'm actually reading it. I finished up two books in the past week that I'd started weeks ago. Now I'm reading a very interesting, sort-of feminist take on about 500 years of historical research on a very elusive person: Shakespeare's wife.

The book, aptly named Shakespeare's Wife, is Germaine Greer's attempt to turn history on its head as it pertains to Will Shakespeare's better half. Publisher's Weekly notes that "generations of critics" have purported that Ann Shakespeare "being eight years older than Shakespeare, was an unattractive woman who seduced and trapped him in an unwanted marriage, from which he escaped as soon as possible. His abandonment of his wife and three children supposedly without support is generally regarded as their just desserts, as is his will, leaving her with nothing but his second-best bed."

I'm only into the first part of the book, but already we see that Shakespeare's family, his father in particular, were kind of losers, and Ann Hathaway's family had land and money and much more going for them. Hmmm. What crazy female would want to seduce that?

I'm very interested in how this will unfold, how Greer will address all the different points of the supposed myth built up over centuries around this mysterious wife. Her research seems to be very thorough; her sources are logical and, not to be sexist, but the ones that a woman would think of. Like, for example, a list of Ann's possessions to ascertain how she was doing at a certain point in her life. But then again, I've been away from academic life for almost 14 years, so what do I know?

I do know that I'm enjoying this book, which is a departure from the stuff I've been reading of late.