Book Reviews

Book Blurb

A dazzling and "highly readable" (Guardian) portrait of Shakespeare as a young artist, revealing how his rich and complex queer life informed the plays and poems we treasure today

“Was Shakespeare gay?” For years the question has sent experts and fans into a tailspin of confusion. But as scholar Will Tosh argues, this debate misses the point: sex, intimacy, and identity in Elizabethan England were infinitely more complex—and queer—than we have been taught.
 
In this incisive biography, Tosh reveals William Shakespeare as a queer artist who drew on his society’s nuanced understanding of gender and sexuality to create some of English literature’s richest works. During Shakespeare’s time, same-sex desire was repressed and punished by the Church and state, but it was also articulated and sustained by institutions across England. Moving through the queer spaces of Shakespeare’s life—his Stratford schoolroom, smoky London taverns and playhouses, the royal court—Tosh shows how strongly Shakespeare’s early work was influenced by the queer culture of the time, much of it totally integrated into mainstream society. He also uncovers the surprising reason why Shakespeare veered away from his early work’s gender-bending homoeroticism.
 
Offering a subversive sketch of Elizabethan England, Straight Acting uncovers Shakespeare as one of history’s great queer artists and completely reshapes the way we understand his life and times.

 

Book Review

I can’t say I am an expert of William Shakespeare or of his œuvre. I wouldn’t even go as far as claiming to be an enlightened amateur. All I know was what I learned in school, in Austria, and that didn’t amount to much. We studied the best known plays, Macbeth, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and that was it. At least, we weren’t provided modernized, simplified renderings, but had to put up with “ye olde” version. And that, believe me, was quite a feat—English wasn’t our native language, many words were outdated, therefore unfamiliar or outright unknown. Of course, the most salacious puns and double-entendres were not explained, either, for our teacher deemed them too crude for our chaste, fifteen-year-old ears (more’s the pity).

Despite the difficulties I listed above, I have to say I enjoyed Shakespeare a great deal in those young years (I’ve always been the odd, nerdy one in my class) and have always wanted to know more about him. That’s why I requested Straight Acting: The Many Queer Lives of William Shakespeare, albeit with mixed emotions—fear that it would assume too much background knowledge or be too scholarly, and hope that it would bring the Bard closer to adult me. Well, my fears were unjustified and my hopes fulfilled. Will Tosh turned out to be a skilled teller of tales, the writing was fluid, the explanations of the murkier sides and the more suggestive meanings of some words informative. Tosh didn’t try to prove why we should think of Shakespeare as being personally gay or queer, either, which would have been rather anti-climactic for me (apart from, and because of, being totally anachronistic). Instead, the author admitted there weren’t enough evidence and known facts to say Shakespeare was or decide he wasn’t, and more importantly, Tosh didn’t make this the essential point of his book.

What Tosh did show was Shakespeare and his writings in a specific context—the last years of Queen Elizabeth I’s and the early years of her successor King James I’s reigns. It was very cleverly done, too. Each chapter had a short, fictionalised introductory sequence (I’m sure I’m not the only one thinking Tosh would make an interesting fiction writer) followed by biographical details and text analyses not only of Shakespeare’s, but also of his fellow writers’ literary production. The bits Tosh didn’t have evidence for didn’t become missing parts of the narrative; instead, Tosh provided accurate guesses by painting the picture of other young men of the same age who had lived in the same era, come from the same sociological background as our famous poet and playwright, and had left texts that could shed light on what experiences Shakespeare might have had.

So, it was a fascinating journey back in time. I found the school years, particularly, very interesting, but also Shakespeare’s arrival in London and how his life possibly/probably turned out. Together with all the the discussion of subtexts in some of Shakespeare’s and his fellow writers’ texts (those were most certainly queer for all who had eyes and could read), that made for an entertaining and informative book—my favourite mix when it comes to non-fiction. I almost regretted it wasn’t longer. What I would love to see, one day, would be a novel about the period and themes covered in this book. Yes, fiction, why not? What one doesn’t know, one can invent when writing a novel, right? Might I be so bold as to suggest Tosh should tackle it himself? Oh, let’s! I’m sure Tosh could pull it off. Anyway, for anyone intrigued by the title as much as I was, you should really grab a copy.

 

 

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This book has been provided by NetGalley for the purpose of a review.

 

Additional Information

Format	ebook and print
Length	Novel, 273 pages
Heat Level
Publication Date	17-September-2024
Price	$18.99 ebook, $32.00 hardcover
Buy Link	https://www.amazon.com/Straight-Acting-Hidden-William-Shakespeare-ebook/dp/B0CR93BMPH