The Stories Behind Shakespeare

by Valerie Nieman
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5 books
As a lover of Shakespeare’s plays but not a scholar of them, I was astonished to learn that the story of Macbeth bore very little resemblance to the truth. As I read more about the 11th-century ruler, a rightful king and uniter of Scotland, I felt drawn to tell his story and that of his wife Gruach, of whom little is known but her name. Upon the Corner of the Moon, the first of two books, will be published in March 2025 – historically accurate while also speculative about “Lady Macbeth’s” family, education, and role. This has been a passion project for many, many years, as I’ve plunged into accounts of the complex political, social, and religious currents of the time. It's the real Game of Thrones!
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Macbeth Before Shakespeare

Benjamin Hudson, 2022
This book was an absolute revelation. After many, many years of ferreting out information on the historical Macbeths, Hudson’s book brought it all together in one coherent package. Who were these rulers before the chroniclers and the loyalists of the next regime got hold of the history?

The Geneva Bible 1560

The Breeches Bible
The Protestants, 2016
This was a powerful translation familiar to Protestants of the period. It came with study guides and was intended to be carried for regular reflection.

Holinshed's Chronicles

The Historie of England, Bookes I-IV
Raphael Holinshed, 2012
This history of England, Scotland, and Ireland was the go-to book for Shakespeare, providing not only the material for his history plays such as Richard III but also narratives that inspired King Lear and Macbeth. The accounts of Macbeth, Macduff, and Duncan have little to do with history but did lead to the creation of the best (in my estimation) of his plays.

COLLECTED WORKS OF OVID;THE COMPLETE WORKS PERGAMONMEDIA.

OVID.
I’ve long loved Ovid’s elegant verse, but Ars Amatoria, or The Art Of Love, and Remedia a Moris, or The Remedy Of Love, really plumb the erotic depths of human relationships. The first of these resulted in Ovid’s banishment to the far reaches of the Roman empire. Ovid was part of the mental “furniture” of any educated man in Shakespeare’s time, and certainly, the transmutations of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest look back to the Metamorphoses.

Hamnet

Maggie O'Farrell, 2023
An astounding book about the young Shakespeare, his family, the plague, and one child’s life. It’s not a source for his work but an avenue for readers to enter his world and understand some of what made him the Bard of Avon. Among my favorite books of the last ten years.