Rosalind

January 2, 2017
In this animated hybrid of scholarship and creative nonfiction, Thirwell offers a sensitive portrait of one of Shakespeare’s most complex female characters, and a sweeping assessment of her cultural legacy. The character of Rosalind in As You Like It—who dresses like a boy and, like all of Shakespeare’s female characters, was originally played by a man—proves complicated and captivating. She is, in Thirwell’s words, a “gender buster,” not simply surpassing or breaching boundaries but bursting them open entirely. Similarly, Thirwell’s work seeks to move beyond the borders of one particular character; her discussion reaches to other characters in the play as well as literary and historical figures well before and beyond Shakespeare’s time. Thirwell has a particular strength for portraying history with dramatic flair, as in a chapter on Queen Elizabeth I. A later chapter about “Rosalind’s daughters” is a little too wide-ranging; Rosalind comes to seem like a symbol for any female character with agency. And when writing about plays, Thirwell spends too much time on detailed summary. But just as this book ends with an injunction to prize questions over answers, so too will Thirwell’s expansive discussion lead curious minds toward creative, boundary-blasting inquiry. Agent: Felicity Bryan, Felicity Bryan Associates (U.K.).

December 1, 2016
Thirlwell (Into the Frame: The Four Loves of Ford Madox Brown, 2010, etc.) turns to a fictional subject in her charming appraisal of the gender-bending protagonist of As You Like It.Though the author claims to be "writing Rosalind's biography," this delightfully rambling text is more properly described as a blend of literary criticism and theater history. Among its theatrical virtues are Thirlwell's memories of great Rosalinds she has seen, beginning with Vanessa Redgrave in 1962; thoughtful reflections on the part from a number of gifted contemporary actors, including Juliet Rylance and Fiona Shaw; and a vivid recap of historic Rosalinds, from Dorothy Jordan's erotically charged 18th-century performances to Charlotte Cushman's butch version in the Victorian era to Edith Evans' glittering 1936 incarnation. On the literary side, Thirlwell explores Shakespeare's sources for As You Like It, the medieval Tale of Gamelyn and Thomas Lodge's 1590 romance Rosalynde, making the interesting point that Lodge's heroine is gentler and more feminine than Shakespeare's powerfully androgynous Rosalind. A later chapter on "Rosalind's Daughters" strains a bit to include every feisty female from Jo March to Yentl, but a number of surprising quotes reveal that writers as different as Virginia Woolf and Pat Barker have been inspired by Rosalind. Thirlwell devotes the bulk of the book to an exegesis of the text, focusing on Rosalind's liberation through cross-dressing and her education of Orlando to be worthy of her love. These are fairly standard points, but the author makes them in lucid prose that sweeps up readers in her love for Shakespeare's thoroughly modern woman. It's also nice to see underappreciated Celia get her due for wit and wisdom that very nearly equal her cousin Rosalind's, and Orlando--who can fade into the Forest of Arden in a bland performance--comes to life in Thirlwell's sensitive appreciation as a romantic juvenile who grows into love between equals. A model of popular Shakespearean scholarship: engagingly accessible and contagiously enthusiastic.

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February 1, 2017

Thirlwell (William and Lucy: The Other Rossettis) here undertakes a unique project--to write a full-blown biography of a theatrical character. Like any real-life biographical subject, Rosalind, the heroine of William Shakespeare's As You Like It, undergoes the same rigorous attention to family history. Thirlwell examines ancestors: Homer's Athena, Ovid's Iphis, and Thomas Lodge's Rosalynde; Shakespearean sisters: Beatrice, Juliet, Portia, Rosaline, Viola, and Imogen; and literary descendants: Jo March in Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, Gwendolen Harleth in George Eliot's Daniel Deronda, etc. In addition to placing Rosalind in the context of her literary/dramatic family tree, Thirlwell also examines in detail the theatrical productions in which she has come alive for the past 400-plus years. Thirlwell gathers masses of interviews with the actors and directors who have created parts of Rosalind's ongoing life story. For this reviewer, these conversations are among the most valuable elements of the book. VERDICT All Shakespeare fans will be eager to see what actors (e.g., Rebecca Hall, Adrian Lester, Vanessa Redgrave) and directors (e.g., Michael Attenborough, Kenneth Branagh, Greg Doran) have to say about Shakespeare's greatest female character in this novel biography.--Paul A. D'Alessandro, Brunswick, ME

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