A splendid and original book
*Sunday Telegraph, Book of the Week*
Fabulous!...I could not recommend it highly enough.
*Alison Weir*
Greatly enjoying Shakespeare and the Countess ... Fascinating how
much archives can still yield.
*Stanley Wells*
I am in love with the brilliant research on display in Shakespeare
and the Countess and how it brings to the fore Lady Elizabeth
Russell, a trailblazing early feminist.
*Observer Books of the Year 2014*
A work of historical and literary detection which takes us straight
to the heart of religious politics in Elizabethan England . . .
there is a great deal to admire in this hugely ambitious book.
*New Statesman*
This is a detailed biography of a vigorous (if not likeable) woman
who stood close to power throughout the reign of Elizabeth I.
[Elizabeth] Russell was a remarkable person - clever, domineering
and ruthless . . . Laoutaris has done a thorough research job
*Sunday Times*
It is a fascinating story and Laoutaris tells it with a winning
combination of scholarly rigour and elegant prose. Contributing
something fresh in the crowded arena of Shakespeare studies is not
easy, but Laoutaris has done precisely that . . . A splendid
book
*Herald Scotland*
Laoutaris delves into all this with immense gusto, introducing his
readers to a dizzying cast of characters and approaching his
subject from myriad different angles. Thanks to [his] impressive
research, this largely forgotten figure emerges as a woman of great
erudition, determination and courage, scarcely less remarkable than
her namesake and contemporary Elizabeth I
*Literary Review*
Elizabeth Russell was a force to be reckoned with [and] is the
indefatigable heroine of [the] book . . . [She was] the woman who
forced the company [the Chamberlain's Men] across the Thames to
create their crucible of theatrical poetry, the Globe
*The Times*
[An] energetic and enterprising book. He has done much original
research, adding new details to the history of the [Blackfriars]
playhouse, and to our knowledge of Elizabethan and Jacobean
Blackfriars . . . Elizabeth Russell was a powerful figure . . . a
fearsome Elizabethan version of Lady Bracknell or Bertie Wooster's
Aunt Agatha . . . Laoutaris has done some very valuable archival
work . . . It is certainly a story worth telling, and Laoutaris
tells it well.
*London Review of Books*
Chris Laoutaris sheds light on the life of the woman who waged
battle against the Bard
*Big Issue North*
Genuinely groundbreaking . . . It's a thrilling tale and Laoutaris
tells it superbly, with fluency and passion and a masterful eye for
the dramatic. Emphatic, meticulously researched and strikingly
original.
*Marylebone Journal (Book of the Week)*
A distinguished biography . . . [and] an impressive feat of
archival research by Chris Laoutaris.
*Around the Globe (the magazine of Shakespeare’s Globe)*
[T]he ambitious, crafty, and eagerly litigious Elizabeth Russell .
. . takes centre stage in this power struggle-filled Elizabethan
drama. The self-proclaimed countess threatened Shakespeare's
livelihood . . . but her opposition inadvertently resulted in the
creation of the famous Globe Theatre, which secured the Bard's
legacy . . . Russell's voice is heard strongly . . . As Laoutaris
shows, Russell - a "staunch Puritan," funerary monument designer,
and the only female sheriff in Elizabethan England - was worthy of
starring in a Shakespearean drama.
*Publishers Weekly, USA*
[A] tale of 16th century NIMBYism. The Puritan termagant Elizabeth
Russell mounted a successful campaign against the . . . theatre
company, which boasted one W. Shakespeare as a partner . . .
[Laoutaris] has unearthed a fascinating story.
*Independent*
Life comes close to imitating art in Shakespeare and the Countess.
Here Laoutaris resuscitates as the great playwright's foil the
long-forgotten Elizabeth Russell, a self-proclaimed dowager
countess and unblushing harridan, who could have stepped out of a
turbulent history play . . . Through her, Laoutaris throws
fascinating light on the Puritans' determined fight against both
Roman Catholicism and the newly established Church of England . . .
[and] on her success in preventing the Burbages, the playwright's
partners, from opening an indoor theatre in Blackfriars beside her
home.
*New York Times*
An engaging portrait of this powerful noblewoman . . . The author
shows, by deftly weaving the events during Russell's lifetime and
her personal impacts played therein, that he exhaustively
researched his subject . . .an immensely riveting read.
*Library Journal, USA*
It could be a tale for the stage itself, involving an ambitious
parvenu, a self-styled countess, more than a hint of treachery and
one of the more spectacular examples of historical Nimbysim . . .
[This is] the story of how William Shakespeare's early plans for a
theatre . . . were thwarted by the outrageous Lady Russell.
*Daily Telegraph*
The story of Shakespeare and the Countess has all the hallmarks of
one of his famous plays - treachery, deception, death and triumph .
. . [A] fantastic tale . . . [Laoutaris] discovered a web of deceit
and a true villain worthy of any of Shakespeare's plays - as well
as information previously thought lost'.
*Daily Mail*
Ask a Question About this Product More... |