Reviews

Given Stephen Greenblatt's attention to Shakespeare's spiritual depth in his biography Will in the World, interest in Shakespeare and religion seems only natural. Author Zinman, an attorney, produced the documentary film Shakespeare's Spirituality: A Perspective, featuring British scholar of perennial philosophy Martin Lings. While Lings was noted for tracing Shakespeare's spirituality in the plays, Zinman went on to write this study of the sonnets from a spiritual perspective. Zinman includes all 154 sonnets, each followed by the sonnet's "Theme," a "Glossary" paraphrasing each quatrain, a "Commentary" on the sonnet's enduring spiritual message, and a set of "Biblical Passages Suggested By" the sonnet. Zinman's exposition shows a love of both the Bard and the biblical (King James, not Shakespeare's favored Geneva Bible) text, along with a creative sense of analogy and metaphor. However, perennial philosophy's predilection for finding universal spiritual truths that transcend time and location means that Shakespeare here is "Will out of the World," unrelated to either Elizabethan England or the investigations and insights of contemporary scholarship. Verdict Better guides to the sonnet's message within Shakespeare's world are Shakespeare's Sonnets in the edition edited by Katherine Duncan-Jones, and Robert Matz's The World of Shakespeare's Sonnets: An Introduction.-Steve Young, McHenry Cty. Coll., Crystal Lake, IL Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.