Shakespeare by Another Name

The idea that Shakespeare's plays were written by someone other than the Stratford actor has been around for centuries. In this controversial audiobook, Mark Anderson contends that Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, was in fact their author. Simon Prebble, who has acted in Shakespearean dramas himself, does his usual first-rate job, with the narrative and the dramatic excerpts. This isn't an audiobook to listen to while you're distracted--particularly in this abridged format, the great number of historical characters and events are difficult to follow. But it's worth the effort. Overall, Anderson sticks to the evidence and doesn't sound defensive about his argument. Whether it holds up is for the specialists to determine, but the listener will find that he makes a compelling case. D.B. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine

August 1, 2005
Anderson, a contributor to Wired and Harper's , is only the latest to champion Edward de Vere, the 17th earl of Oxford, as the author of Shakespeare's works. The hypothesis rests chiefly on the charismatic de Vere's eventful life and times. De Vere came into his earldom early, after his father's unexpected death, and spent his childhood as a ward of Queen Elizabeth's chief minister, William Cecil, whom Anderson casts as Polonius to de Vere's Hamlet. Cecil provided de Vere with a first-rate education that prepared him for his travels in Italy and his short-lived success in Elizabeth's court, which the earl undermined by fighting with fellow courtier Philip Sidney, impregnating one of Elizabeth's maids-of-honor and general profligacy. Anderson slows down his account by constantly equating events and people in de Vere's life with almost every character and scene in Shakespeare's plays. The earl's inconvenient death in 1604, however, requires Anderson to explain away all contemporary references in the last phase of Shakespeare's output with the same vehemence with which he found earlier coded identifications. The anti-Stratford movement currently favors the Oxfordians, who will eat this up; others will find it hard to swallow.