How would the world look without the influence of Shakespeare pervading so many aspects of life and culture and belief?
In a race against time, with the fate of lives and souls hanging in the balance, the forces of good and evil battle to save or destroy Shakespeare’s works. Which side works to which end? That is the question, isn’t it?
Would we be better off without Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, and the others, or would the safety valve that theatrical expression provides back up into an explosion of apocalyptic proportions? Follow the cast of this tale–from university student to petty thief to talk show host–as they travel through time and space in Burning Shakespeare.
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“Part Connie Willis time-travel, part Douglas Adams whimsy, part Julie Schumacher academic satire, with a refreshing touch of Key & Peele, Burning Shakespeare is also a clear-eyed assessment of what we love — and hate — about Shakespeare.” — Sujata Iyengar, author of Shades of Difference: Mythologies of Skin Color and Race in Early Modern England and Shakespeare’s Medical Language
“Funnier than Timon of Athens, sadder than As You Like It, Burning Shakespeare fantasizes a world in which all of Shakespeare’s plays come perilously close to joining the library of the lost.”
Paul Menzer, Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts, Mary Baldwin University
“If in some parallel universe Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman had collaborated with A.C. Bradley, they might imaginably have come up with a novel both as funny and as intellectually exciting as A.J. Hartley’s Burning Shakespeare. But I doubt it.”
Professor Michael Dobson, Director of the Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-Upon-Avon
Shakespeare’s works are being wiped from history – and only a group of ill-assorted dead people can save them! This whimsical romp from now to Shakespeare’s day, via Hell, wears its learning lightly, but is as illuminating as funny. Highly recommended!
Tiffany Stern Fellow of the British Academy, General Editor, Arden Shakespeare: 4
“Beelzebub, Belial, Shakespeare, and the academy: what could go wrong? Burning Shakespeare does just what novels featuring Shakespeare fail to do, taking readers on a wild, witty, sometimes even poignant ride, leaving us with the faint scent of brimstone, too.”
W. B. Worthen, Alice Brady Pels Professor in the Arts, Barnard College, Columbia University
“I have met many who didn’t like Shakespeare but never someone who hated his work enough to destroy all trace of it. AJ Hartley’s novel about someone who loathed Shakespeare that much is smart, funny and action-packed. It’s also far more enjoyable than most people seem to suppose Shakespeare’s plays are.”
Peter Holland, Chair, International Shakespeare Association