Death by Shakespeare: Snakebites, Stabbings and Broken Hearts

William Shakespeare is a cultural phenomenon. He has been credited with creating a vast amount of new words. His plays are performed regularly as well as countless movies created about them.
To write a book about just one aspect of his plays is a feat but Kathryn Harkup has achieved this task. She has documented the deaths in Shakespeare and explained if they could have happened as written.
I especially liked the titles of her chapters. She goes over every death from murders, poisons, suicides, plagues, and more.
What is best about her book is how entertaining it is to read from start to finish. You definitely don’t have to be a scientist to understand her terms or a Shakespearean authority to read this wonderful book.

I had not given much thought to why Shakespeare killed off people the way he did. This quick, fun, and easy read was a learning event for me. A very enjoyable few hours read which I will be referring back to as I re-read Shakespeare.

Really interesting read

“Death By Shakespeare: Snakebites, Stabbings and Broken Hearts,” by Kathryn Harkup, is what it says it is: a book about all the ways in which William Shakespeare killed off characters in his plays and sonnets. Ms. Harkup, a chemist, first describes the Bards life and times, and then moves on to how he could have come to know about the effects of certain types of death (i.e., how some poisons work, or what kinds of methods the state used to execute people – something everyone in his time would have known because executions were common and public) and whether some of his more fanciful killings could be effective. Ms. Harkup writes in a lively style, bringing in quotes from the plays and then dissecting them. There are extensive bottom-of-the-page notes to add more context to the main text, as well as a useful appendix in which she lists all of the killed characters in each play and the means of their deaths. There are no academic notes, but she does include a very extensive bibliography that includes material from Shakespeares own time right up through to our present, with particular emphasis on medical discoveries made in the 1800s. I found the book a fascinating read, but must warn that it is full of graphic descriptions of gory, disgusting deaths, so it is definitely not for the faint of heart!

This book shows the Bards work in a way youve never seen before. Im not a big fan of Shakespeares but, as anyone with a pulse, Im familiar with many of his plays. I also love crime fiction and Death by Shakespeare taught me about history, literature, anatomy and forensics. What is the difference between poison and venom? What poison killed Hamlets dad? How long did it take Mercutio to bleed to death? How did Othello murder Desdemona? How could death by bear attack be staged back in the day? The author takes a fascinating look into all this and explains the science in a language thats easy to understand for laypeople. The psychology of the characters is also explored, as well as the historical setting in which Shakespeare wrote. I learned about some of his more obscure plays (Titus Andronicus must be added to my TBR Stat!) and remembered plots that I hadnt thought about in ages. This is a fascinating book that will appeal to many readers.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/ Bloomsbury USA!

Galaxyaudiobook Member Benefit

- Able to comment

- List watched audiobooks

- List favorite audiobooks

- Bookmark will only available for Galaxyaudiobook member