Death by Shakespeare: Snakebites, Stabbings and Broken Hearts

Today’s post is on Death by Shakespeare: Snakebites, Stabbings and Broken Hearts by Kathryn Harkup. It is 368 pages long and is published by Bloomsbury. The cover is black with a skull and the title on it. The intended reader is someone who is interested in the world Shakespeare would have lived and wrote about. There is mild foul language, no sex, and discussion of violence in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the dust jacket- An in-depth look at the science behind the creative methods Shakespeare used to kill off his characters.

In Death By Shakespeare, Kathryn Harkup, best-selling author of A is for Arsenic and expert on the more gruesome side of science, turns her expertise to Shakespeare and the creative methods he used to kill off his characters. Is death by snakebite really as serene as Cleopatra made it seem? How did Juliet appear dead for 72 hours only to be revived in perfect health? Can you really kill someone by pouring poison in their ear? How long would it take before Lady Macbeth died from lack of sleep? Readers will find out exactly how all the iconic death scenes that have thrilled audiences for centuries would play out in real life.

In the Bard's day death was a part of everyday life. Plague, pestilence and public executions were a common occurrence, and the chances of seeing a dead or dying body on the way home from the theater was a fairly likely scenario. Death is one of the major themes that reoccurs constantly throughout Shakespeare's canon, and he certainly didn't shy away from portraying the bloody reality of death on the stage. He didn't have to invent gruesome or novel ways to kill off his characters when everyday experience provided plenty of inspiration.

Shakespeare's era was also a time of huge scientific advance. The human body, its construction and how it was affected by disease came under scrutiny, overturning more than a thousand years of received Greek wisdom, and Shakespeare himself hinted at these new scientific discoveries and medical advances in his writing, such as circulation of the blood and treatments for syphilis.

Shakespeare found 74 different ways to kill off his characters, and audiences today still enjoy the same reactions--shock, sadness, fear--that they did over 400 years ago when these plays were first performed. But how realistic are these deaths, and did Shakespeare have the science to back them up?

Review- An excellent and fascinating read about the great bard and the world he lived in. Harkup does a wonderful job both in research and in presentation on the material. She helps break down both the works, the world, and what we know about the man, Shakespeare, himself and she makes it very understandable for the average reader. If you are a Shakespeare aficionado, you will still enjoy this book as it is not just about the work but grounds the works in the world that Shakespeare would have lived in. The writing is excellent and very accessible, the narrative is very easy to follow, and the result is a better understanding of Shakespeare but also his world and work. I highly recommend this book.

I give this book a Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my library.