Shakespeare on Toast: Getting a Taste for the Bard [Format Kindle]

Shakespeare on Toast: A Delightful Holistic Introduction to Shakespeare

Told in bite-sized scenes, and arranged into five acts, Shakespeare on Toast gives a wholesome helping of Shakespeare in each take. The book ranges on comprehensive topics from history and setting to language (quite detailed for an introductory book) to a rather idiosyncratic analysis of an entire scene from Macbeth, as well as incidental factoids... such as the fact that Arnold Schwarzenegger apparently got his first role in an American film when his friend convinced the producers that he was a famous Shakespearean actor back in Austria. But, also mentioned in the same breath in the book's "opening scene," he's perhaps better known as a "Shakespearean actor" playing Hamlet in the 1993 movie Last Action Hero, wherein he blasts away at Polonius with an Uzi and decides "not to be" in a rather explosive way.

Throughout the volume, Ben Crystal gives several examples that Shakespeare is actually still quite alive. There's the hackneyed veneration he gets for inventing a plethora of words and sayings in modern English. There's the myriad modern incarnations in both everyday culture and other theatrical presentations. And also, Crystal weaves out an interesting allusion between jazz and Shakespeare's words, and even goes as far as to include figures of syllable-graphs, which visually show the variation in numbers of syllables per line, comparing it with the variations of a jazz master. By analyzing meter and language, Crystal suggests that Shakespeare is really quite with us--"directing from the grave," that verse (from the folios) is more like sheet music; thus lines with fewer syllables end with (musical) rests, where an actor pauses in speech and does a particular action associated with the line.

Also covered is the mystery of the man, his plays and sonnets, and his times. There's the assertion an actor would make that the Bard, were he alive now, would be more of a soap opera writer than a Nobel Prize laureate (or perhaps a soap-opera-writer-become-Nobel-Prize-laureate). Indeed, this is also supported by the fact that, unlike Ben Jonson and others, Shakespeare never made efforts to ensure the longevity of his plays (the good folio was apparently published by two of his actors [while Crystal did not mention this, but incidentally, I might ask might they be the real author(s)?], and the quartos by rival companies and others wishing for a bit of the pie through his fame), suggesting that perhaps he really did write his plays purely for his times and to earn a living.

Along with a review of many aspects relating to Shakespeare, though often told from a different perspective, the book is also filled with many interesting factoids. Some interesting ones include: The Elizabethan (and other earlier era) audiences were more gullible, and were more easily drawn into the world of the play (such that an audience member was so disgusted by Iago in a production of Othello in the 1800s that he shot him during the show!), whereas, nowadays, we take any spectacular sight to be CGI or just another special effect, and good acting to be just acting (and not a sign that a person really *is* like that). The tradition of richness in costume existed as early as then--when Phil Henslowe spent the equivalent of about $5000 (us dollars) on a fancy cloak. And also... when you read Shakespeare your Sylvian fissure "lights up like a Christmas tree."

Ben Crystal takes the seemingly complicated works of William Shakespeare and puts them into context, breaks them down, and gives us a new perspective. The writing is light and humorous at times. Sometimes it is a bit dry, and sometimes it is a bit repetitive.

Crystal is a little too long winded for my tastes, but I did enjoy the bits of history thrown in as it helps you understand where both Shakespeare and his audiences are coming from. I really hadn't thought about the fact that the witch hunts were going on at the time he wrote Macbeth. I also didn't know that in Shakespeare's day, plays were like soap operas. Retellings of old stories that people were familiar with and took at face value.

Shakespeare on Toast is a book about Shakespeare. The author introduces Shakespeare as a person from the Elizabethan era. He explains the time and conditions under which Shakespeare wrote his plays. Furthermore he gives an insight into the most important aspects of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets.

The book is lightly written and easy to understand. The reader is not stressed with special terms; instead he explains Shakespeare on a level, which should be well understood by schoolchildren. However, it is equally appropriate for adults, since it is even entertaining to learn interesting facts of the Elizabethan era, Shakespeare's life and his language and his plays. However, it is no comprehensive in-depth guide about Shakespeare. Surely, the aim of the book is to give an introduction and raise the interest into Shakespeare's works. One of the most important features, which I want to point out, is that the author gives a very useful guide, how Shakespearean plays can be analyzed and understood. Rather than explaining all the elements of the plays he shows how one can approach these plays. In my opinion, this is outstanding aspect of the book, since it provides the tools to actually understand Shakespeare beyond just reading explanations from secondary literature.

A couple of years beyond my school education, I used this book to refresh my knowledge about Shakespeare. For me, it is very entertaining and interesting to read and follow the book. It gives me a guide how to understand Shakespearean plays and what I have to focus on while reading or watching them. I recommend this book to everyone, who wants to get into Shakespeare and learn how to understand his plays. As mentioned before, it does not provide a detailed compendium about Shakespeare, but explains in a very authentic and atmospheric way the setting and language of Shakespeare's plays. I could broaden my view on Shakespeare. After that, every reader should feel confident enough to dive into Shakespeare's plays.

"Despite the fact that he was as human, flawed and fallible as the rest of us, the one rule that has always guided me straight and true with Shakespeare is this: There is always a reason for it." (Ben Crystal, Shakespeare on Toast, p. 193)

Tags: happy, gentle, easy, unusual, short