I went into this book with high expectations. The author is part of a group of scholars such as Dickens and Emerson who believe that Edward De Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford was the real Shakespeare. There are many coincidences that, depending on who you speak to, could prove this theory to be true. Either way, the earl was a fascinating figure of his time and seeing as how the author put in 15 years of research into it,I was sure this would be a title to recommend to many of my customers.
I couldn't have been more wrong. This reads like a fawning tribute to De Vere as Shakespeare but lacks the substance to stand up to the challenge. Edward is a caricature of the historical Earl and lacks any dimension whatsoever. He comes across as a selfish man who shows no sign of the facets of intelligence and passion that are so integral to Shakespeare's works. Taking artistic license into account I still cannot believe how many times I had to stop to utter the words, Give me a break nor the amount of time I had to spend checking established FACTS. Eg. Arthur Brooke is supposedly a pen name for Edward as a young poet, yet Arthur Brooke is historically known to have lived as a poet who died at sea. Another moment in the book has Robert Cecil treating Edward as a friend/co-conspirator, yet it is widely known that Robert hated Edward with a passion as he was tormented by Edward who lived at Cecil house as a ward.
In the end, trying to believe Frohlich's Edward could ever have written these plays and sonnets or was one of the few blessed to tread the boards is ridiculous.
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