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Time's Fool: A Mystery of Shakespeare
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| List Price: | CDN$ 80.89 |
| Price: | CDN$ 68.86 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $39. Details |
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Product Description
William Shakespeare is perhaps the most famous and prolific playwright of all time. Millions have read and seen his works, but few know the man behind the works. For all his fortune and fame, little did he know that the greatest drama of his life would not be performed on stage....
Welcome to Shakespeare's London, a world where the stage captures the hearts of every citizen, where darkness hides dangerous and vengeful creatures. It is in the darkness that Shakespeare finds himself the victim of treachery most foul.
When Shakespeare is contacted by his dark mistress, the former love of his life, he is excited to see her again after so long a separation. Much to his horror, he finds that the years have not been kind; she is now disease-ridden and near death...and she intends to blackmail him, threatening to expose their affair to the world unless he pays her considerable doctor's bills. A sudden fire cuts their meeting short and takes her life.
Torn between grief and anger, Shakespeare learns that the fire was no accident, and that he is being stalked by a person obsessed with bringing his life to ruin. Hope soon comes in the form of a small boy, a would-be actor who happened to witness the arsonist. As quickly as hope appears, it is snuffed out when the boy is violently murdered. Worse yet, Shakespeare is the primary suspect.
Out on bail, Shakespeare finds himself in a desperate race to uncover the truth behind the murder. With his reputation and his life itself on the line, Shakespeare must put down his quill and brace himself for a mystery like none other.
Rich in suspense, period detail, and intrigue, Time's Fool is Leonard Tourney's compelling journey through Shakespeare's world, a world you won't soon forget.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #1895828 in Books
- Published on: 2005-08
- Original language: English
- Dimensions: 1.17" h x 6.62" w x 6.50" l, .71 pounds
- Binding: Audio CD
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
At the start of Leonard's literate and entertaining historical, set in 1603 and narrated with brio by the Bard himself, the Dark Lady of the sonnets lures her former lover, prosperous playwright Will Shakespeare, to a reunion tryst. Now wretched with the pox and mired in poverty, she threatens England's literary hero with exposure and disgrace unless he pays her a considerable sum of money. Moments later, a suspicious fire breaks out and she leaps to her death. Bewildered by the whole sordid affair, Will visits royal courts and squalid London byways in an effort to seek out possible enemies who might want to ruin him. Aphorisms from poems and plays are neatly woven into Will's encounters with self-important luminaries like Lord Cecil, the king's "Master High and Mighty," with obsequious servants and even with fishmongers who mug him in a back alley late one night. Murder and intrigue backstage at the Globe implicate poor Will in the death of a young boy suspected of having illicit relations with him. Seeing himself as the "Time's fool" of his sonnet, Will becomes an appealingly human figure, anxious about the future yet filled with a refreshing optimism. Shakespeare fans will delight in this witty caper.
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From AudioFile
Devoted Shakespeare fans may not appreciate this portrait of the Bard as an old man falsely accused and wrongly imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. He struggles to solve the mystery of who is out to ruin him and why. The fate of the young boy who could confirm that arson took place, as well as the dismal circumstances and unbearably sad appearance of the Bard's Dark Lady of the Sonnets, renders this a depressing listen. Tony Jay's beautiful reading and sensitive interpretation of the story, however, do much to compensate for the woeful plot as he conveys the dreary reality of London's criminal underbelly of the time. L.C. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
