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Shakespeare’s House

A Window onto his Life and Legacy
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Shakespeare’s House

By: Richard Schoch
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Summary

 '[A] page-turning story' - Laurie Maguire, Times Literary Supplement

'A terrific addition to the Shakespeare library ... eye-opening.' - Michael Billington, Country Life

Now available in paperback, Richard's Schoch's compelling history of Shakespeare's birthplace reveals the value we place on the building and on the man himself.

In the wide realm of Shakespeare worship, the house in Stratford-upon-Avon where William Shakespeare was born in 1564 – known colloquially as the ‘Birthplace’ – remains the chief shrine. It’s not as romantic as Anne Hathaway’s thatched cottage, it’s not where he wrote any of his plays, and there’s nothing inside the house that once belonged to Shakespeare himself. So why, for centuries, have people kept turning up on the doorstep? Richard Schoch answers that question by examining the history of the Birthplace and by exploring how its changing fortunes over four centuries perfectly mirror the changing attitudes toward Shakespeare himself.

Based on original research in the archives of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon and the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, and featuring two black and white illustrated plate sections, this book traces the history of Shakespeare’s birthplace over four centuries. Beginning in the 1560s, when Shakespeare was born there, it ends in the 1890s, when the house was rescued from private purchase and turned into the Shakespeare monument that it remains today.
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Critic reviews

Schoch has a gift for archival details and their complement: anecdotes and traditions … [A] page-turning story, which takes us skilfully from Elizabethan houses in general to these two Shakespeare houses in particular. (Laurie Maguire)
This book is a terrific addition to the Shakespeare library … Combining social, architectural and theatrical history, the first third of the book offers a vivid evocation of life in Elizabethan Stratford … His most piercing observation, in this eye-opening book, is that the most important person in the birthplace is not the absent Shakespeare, but the curious visitor who finds in it whatever he or she is looking for. (Michael Billington)
The book is jam-packed with facts and dates, but it flows well and it's easy to follow - Shakespeare's House is a delectable piece of microhistory and the perfect stocking filler for those who dabble in bardolatry. (Cindy Marcolina)
[Schoch] proves himself an impressive detective with a nose for a good story … Entertaining in its own right and also helpful as a reminder of the life and work of the great man. (Philip Fisher)
A lively account of Shake­speare’s Birthplace. (Glyn Paflin)
Fascinating … A detailed and highly compelling story that involves so much more than bricks and mortar.
There’s a sweet spot that must be struck when writing a Shakespeare book, one between nicheness and accessibility, originality and straightforwardness. Schoch nails the brief, and then some … A book that soon reveals itself to be genuinely and sustainedly interesting … If you have an interest in Shakespeare, fantastic; you are positively guaranteed to learn something new and pay more serious attention to issues of materiality and place that oftentimes fly under the radar during our study of genius. If you don’t give a fig about the Bard, but happen upon a copy, give it a go. There is more than enough insight into the things that were essential to Shakespeare, that are essential to us, to keep you hooked.
A sparklingly irreverent and yet sympathetic account of how and why Shakespeare’s birthplace became The Birthplace. Schoch brings the Stratford-upon-Avon that Shakespeare would have known vividly to life before telling the story of how a house in Henley Street turned into cultural heritage. It is a tale of fluctuating family fortunes, changing ideas of authorship, unashamed entrepreneurialism, mingled national reverence and hypocrisy, and how much the Birthplace has been worth and to whom. Brilliantly detailed and impeccably researched new materials dug out of the archive shed light on the second-best bed, the mulberry tree, the earliest tourists, the fabrication of Shakespeare relics, the auction of the house in 1847 and restoration anxieties. The Birthplace comes into new focus as a strange and wonderful amalgam of the genuine and sham, history and mythology.

Essential reading for all Shakespeare enthusiasts – thrilling, entertaining, definitive.
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