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How Shakespeare Changed Everything
How Shakespeare Changed Everything | Stephen Marche
4 posts | 3 read | 4 to read
Did you know the name Jessica was first used in The Merchant of Venice? Or that Freud's idea of a healthy sex life came from Shakespeake? Nearly four hundred years after his death, Shakespeare permeates our everyday lives: from the words we speak to the teenage heartthrobs we worship to the political rhetoric spewed by the twenty-four-hour news cycle. In the pages of this wickedly clever little book, Esquire columnist Stephen Marche uncovers the hidden influence of Shakespeare in our culture, including these fascinating tidbits: Shakespeare coined over 1,700 words, including hobnob, glow, lackluster, and dawn. Paul Robeson's 1943 performance as Othello on Broadway was a seminal moment in black history. Tolstoy wrote an entire book about Shakespeare's failures as a writer. In 1936, the Nazi Party tried to claim Shakespeare as a Germanic writer. Without Shakespeare, the book titles Infinite Jest, The Sound and the Fury, and Brave New World wouldn't exist. Stephen Marche has cherry-picked the sweetest and most savory historical footnotes from Shakespeare's work and life to create this unique celebration of the greatest writer of all time.
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Creadnorthey
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Mehso-so

So I liked it- lots of tidbits that provoke a chuckle and be gobsmacked about- so why the middling rating? Some chapters rambled to the point where I would pop out of a droll anecdote wondering why was I reading this… but not really feeling like time was wasted just a bit lost in the meanderings of the author.

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SW-T
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Caption: Dogs of Shakespeare

Shakespeare‘s influence is everywhere. Movies, books, politics, psychotherapy, broadway, botany, baby names, and beyond.

#reread #Shakespeare

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Shawna
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This is one of my favourite short reads. Pretty interesting how much of an impact Shakespeare had on our everyday lives including the name Jessica and the phrases green with envy, tongue-tied, in a pickle and dead as a doornail.
#shortreads
#readingresolutions

33 likes3 stack adds
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sj_marquist
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Pickpick

An awesome final book of my fifteenth year- and a great book to start off my Litsy! This book is filled with well thought-out essays about Shakespeare's impact on everything from teen fashion to modern psychology. A must-read for anyone interested in The Bard, literature, or theatre- or really anything at all!

RaimeyGallant Welcome to Litsy! 7y
1 like2 comments