The Shakespeare Stealer

I listened to the Audible edition of 'The Shakespeare Stealer' with my oldest daughter on a recent trip. It was the last of the books that she needed to read to complete her school's summer reading list for the year. It was also one that I hadn't read before, so it was new to both of us.<br /><br />While I usually enjoy reading the classic children's stories, this one just didn't hold much appeal for me. Honestly, it was kind of a tedious listening experience for both of us. We both kept losing interest. There just wasn't a feeling of anticipation at any point in this story for us.<br /><br />The story is about a young boy, Widge. He is a servant and is trained to write in shorthand. When he is sold to a new master, he finds himself facing a big ethical dilemma.<br /><br />Widge's new master owns a theatre company. He wants to make use of Widge's shorthand skills in order to steal the script for a new production being put on by a rival company, the Globe Theatre. Widge's assignment is to attend the performances and copy down the script, returning it to his master. The production is Shakespeare's newest play, 'Hamlet'.<br /><br />One thing leads to another and Widge is taken in by the Globe Theatre company. He makes new friends and grows quite fond of their varied personalities. He is treated as an equal, and a person, for the first time in his life. <br /><br />Meanwhile, Widge's secret haunts him. He no longer wants to betray the people he's grown to care for and he wants to escape his life of servitude. At the same time, he is playing a cat and mouse game with his master, who expects him to produce the script that he was sent to steal. <br /><br />When the truth eventually comes to light, Widge learns a lot about "family" and "friendship". His loyalties are tested and he must make a decision between doing what is expected of him and doing what he knows is right. <br /><br />Despite being a rather flat read for us, I can see why this book was recommended reading for my fifth grade daughter. It is a coming of age story with many life lessons sprinkled in. It also does a wonderful job of depicting that era in London, exploring issues of social class and providing a glimpse into that timeframe. That did prompt several discussions and explanations related to the meaning of different words and situations.<br /><br />Overall, it was an "okay" story. I can't ignore the historical insight that this book provided, or the important moral lessons. However, I'd be lying if I said that it was an entertaining read. It was mostly dull. Despite the numerous awards that this book has won, I couldn't bring myself to love it.<br /><br />Check out more of my reviews at <a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="http://www.bookaddicthaven.com">www.bookaddicthaven.com</a>

Well and honestly, with regard to how Gary L. Blackwood presents a sense of historical time and place in his 1998 middle grade novel <u>The Shakespeare Stealer</u>, this part of my reading experience has most definitely been both a delightfully fun and also much educational historical fiction (and historical mystery) romp, presenting a detailed slice of Elizabethan Renaissance life and of course in particular how plays, how dramas were performed during Elizabethan times and what the daily lives of actors generally were like (and yes, you can certainly tell that Blackwood has really and truly done his research here, since <u>The Shakespeare Stealer</u> does indeed feature and present a descriptiveness that is basically totally realistic, showing us as readers the sights, the sounds, the smells, basically the daily happenings of late Renaissance England, of London, and how William Shakespeare’s The Lord Chamberlain’s Men organised and ran their plays at the Globe Theatre). <br /><br />But nevertheless, I would also not in any way yet consider <u>The Shakespeare Stealer</u> as being a personal reading favourite. Because albeit that I truly have appreciated the wonderful, realistically detailed and authentic feeling and reading description and depiction of Shakespeare’s acting company and the Globe Theatre, I also do think that aside from main protagonist and chief first person narrator Widge, all of the secondary characters present in <u>The Shakespeare Stealer</u> are basically kind of one dimensional in their scope and often equally rather stereotypical good or bad (with especially the given villains who make their necessary appearances in the <u>Shakespeare Stealer</u> usually being so obviously lacking in any kind of even remote character depth and background that their actions and behaviours are rather totally predictable and as such also quite monotonous and tedious, and of course therefore totally expected, such as for example Falconer being Simon Bass in disguise not at all turning out to be the surprise that I think Gary L. Blackwell was intending this to be). <br /><br />Combined with the fact that William Shakespeare’s own role in <u>The Shakespeare Stealer</u> is much too limiting and small for my tastes (and that I did in fact expect Shakespeare to have been much more prominently featured within Gary L. Blackwood’s storyline and not to have him basically just seemingly play second fiddle to not only Widge and his attempts to steal <i>Hamlet</i> for Simon Bass but really with regard to ALL of the other actors, apprentices and shareholders of the Globe), while I have without a doubt enjoyed my reading time immensely (and would have absolutely adored <u>The Shakespeare Stealer</u> as a tween or as a young teenager), I do think that much more depth needs to be included in Blackwood’s text for me to consider more than a high but still a trifle disappointed three star rating (but yes, I am definitely planning on reading the two sequels to <u>The Shakespeare Stealer</u> and am also kind of hoping that perhaps both <u>Shakespeare’s Scribe</u> and <u>Shakespeare’s Spy</u> might be more in-depth and feature more developed and nuanced characters).

*hides from Mary H* Sorry, girl!

Excellent coming of age story about a young boy who had only known hardship and serving a master, unconditionally. He only knew to obey, not to question why, until he was sent to record the words in Shakespear's play <i>Hamlet</i>, using his unique short-hand that he had learned from his previous master. If he couldn't do that, he was to steal the playbook. After accidentally setting fire to the thatched roof of the Globe theater, he became involved with the performers and was invited to become an apprentice.<br /><br />I really enjoyed the audiobook narration by Stuart Blinder. His voices for the numerous characters was wonderful.

[those concerned about spoilers may want to avoid this review] The Shakespeare Stealer is one of those unfortunate books that has all the ingredients to be outstanding but ends up being not merely disappointing but hurtful. I could write about the ways in which the story does not succeed for me as a reader, despite the Elizabethan setting and my deep devotion to Shakespeare. I could write about how the story fails on some historical grounds and grounds of plausibility. Most obviously, it was performing Richard II, not Richard III, that got the Lord Chamberlain’s Men into hot water during the Earl of Essex’s short-lived rebellion. But I will focus my reflection here on how the story fails for me as a Jewish reader. To quickly summarize the plot, the protagonist Widge is a poor orphan recruited to steal the script of Hamlet from the Lord Chamberlain’s Men as part of what proves to be the villain’s personal vendetta against the company. In the end, Widge proves his acting talents, is welcomed among the company players, and thwarts the villain’s plot to steal the script, resulting in the villain’s death.<br /><br />The villain, we learn at the end, has been masquerading as two people - both the harmless-looking wealthy gentleman from Leicester named Simon Bass who wants the script, and the dark and forbidding henchman who does his dirty work. This latter, the alter ego, is disguised, we learn at the end, in his own words, in “everyone’s idea of what a Jew looks like.” Namely, dark skin, hooked nose, curly beard, etc, what we are supposed to imagine was Shylock’s costume.<br /><br />None of this is damning for the story. What is damning is the author’s characterization of the story’s villain. In his persona as the henchman, the villain is nothing less than abusive in his treatment of Widge and merciless in his treatment of others. He is quick to kill those who offend him and displays few if any redeeming qualities. We are given to understand that he was with the Lord Chamberlain’s Men for a while but left under unspecified circumstances and turned to a life of crime - not just stealing other company’s scripts but also pilfering town coffers. We learn that when he was with the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, there were rumors circulating about him being a Jew and that his real name was Simon Bashevi. We learn that even then his behavior towards others had a streak of cruelty. I am not convinced that the average Elizabethan would have been able to identify Bashevi as a Jewish rather than merely foreign-sounding surname. In any case, Simon is given no backstory to explain his origins or how the rumors of his Jewish identity started. Through the specificity of the name Bashevi, and through Simon’s touchiness on the topic of Jews, and his obsession with Shylock-esque makeup, we are given to understand that he is, by origins if not practice, a Jew. The story also leads us to the conclusion that his criminality was innate to him. At the end, Widge wonders how Simon was able to embody his disguise as the hook-nosed villain so convincingly. The wise Mr. Armin (who delivers some of Shakespeare’s most profound lines in the Fool’s roles) replies that “Perhaps it was his true self.”<br /><br />So what does this mean, “his true self?” How can it mean anything other than that Simon Bass’ benign exterior would be more truly reflected in the visage of a “Jew?” That the guise of the “Jew” reflects the makeup of his heart? The Jew costume exposes Simon’s true self just as the actions he takes wearing this costume expose his true self. In this book as in antisemitic stereotypes more broadly, the role of the Jew is defined by not just a dark face and hooked nose, but also cruel behavior and criminal proclivities. The story’s sympathetic characters perceive Simon’s “Jewified” face as a truer reflection of his identity than his natural face. This is the perverse logic of antisemitism, which the story does nothing to disrupt or question. The Jew that appears as a “mild-looking man” is as much, if not more, of a threat as the Jew that outwardly signals his identity by his sinister appearance. He may appear harmless, but all the while he is plotting; his kindness is itself deceit. Whether the author followed the logic of his own characterization or not, the conclusion is clear. Antisemitism exists regardless of intentionality, and I am forced to conclude that despite its likely innocuous intent, this book carries a deeply and insidiously antisemitic message.

I found myself comparing this book to The False Prince and found it lacking. Widge is likeable enough and he truly is on the horns of many a dilemma with the disadvantage of being an orphan and at the mercy of the adults who choose to take him in. The end was a bit anticlimactic. Overall a fun tale, but not as compelling as others I have read.

This is a great book! I really liked how it was so well thought through, and how there were little clues that were hardly noticeable until something happened that put them all together. I can't wait to read the rest of the series!

An easy, light read with a solid fairy tale and identity quest structure. Explores the different ways in which we play roles in life, for good or ill. Touches on a legitimate play pirating issue in Shakespeare’s day. I most enjoyed the story’s wordplay and use of period-era language. <br /><br />(The Literary Life Podcast 2023 Reading Challenge – Historical fiction/nonfiction)

I really hated this book in the being but in the end i came to like it. The book involves a lot of sword fighting, weird, HUH? The book really comes to show that everybody is not who you thought they were. Sometimes people hide their identity for goo reasons and sometimes for bad reasons. This book really comes to show that loyalty is important and you need to be careful who you trust, because you never know who is hiding their identity!! I would definitely recommend this book, It is a quick and easy read for historical fiction. It is boring a first, but give it a chance, the book has a great lesson in it.

This young adult novel follows the adventures of an Elizabethan orphan named Widge, who is sold into service to an unscrupulous theater director. Widge knows the new art of shorthand, and he is ordered to attend a performance of Shakespeare's Hamlet at the Globe Theatre, copy down the text of the play, and return it to his master, who will mount an unauthorized production. But Widge is discovered by the players, who take him in as an apprentice.<br />Blackwood has done his theater-history homework, and his rendition of backstage life is vivid and believable. His historical figures (Richard Burbage, Will Kemp, Shakespeare himself) are one-dimensional and his fictional boy actors speak to one another in overly contemporary tones at times, but the story moves quickly and Blackwood does avoid the sentimentality that mars the similarly-themed King of Shadows by Susan Cooper. The novel's surprises are not so surprising to anyone who's watched Shakespeare in Love, but the realistic details of sword-fighting, stage effects and line memorization make this a great read for anyone interested in theater.