This is a fun and thorough romp through the world of Shakespearian deaths. The real world science is explored in minute detail. Perfect for the literary ghouls among us, myself included!

Interesting, but I was hoping for some more gripping content. I thought the idea was pretty original, but the book just became like a wordy history book more interested in delivering the history of Shakespeare's time than delving into the actual details of the deaths referenced by his plays.

This was definitely informative but it was a little more dry than I was hoping for. I was hoping for a more entertaining book, as opposed to an educational one. It will be of great interest to those looking for deeper dives into the history of disease in Shakespearean times though.

I really liked this. I am a fan of Shakespeare and it was great to learn more context about his writings and the environment that he lived in. I think my favorite sections was the one of poisons. The plague chapter was strange to read during this year.

"To die is as common as to live."

Death is always memorable maybe not so much a life led, but whether tragic or (horribly) comically ironic we subconsciously recall details when asked to amuse those with a story especially when learned demises happen within the lines of created watchable entertainment. And you are sure to come away with particulars and have a desire to oddly regale others around you about Shakespeare's characters from his most celebrated and studied plays (and the various stages of death within the body), after finishing Death by Shakespeare: Snakebites, Stabbings and Broken Hearts. In this interesting page-turner, you will be asked to take a seat and become a part of The Bard's audience (and at the same time step up to the anatomist's table that waits in the wings) as a line of his most recognized characters are paraded out within themed chapters and we revisit specifics of their famous scenes and their final curtain calls and how those deaths were made so vivid plus relatable for Shakespeare's audience. A little medical knowledge will serve the curious reader well, but even if you never cracked open an anatomy book, Ms Harkup does different subjects justice and makes this work an overall fascinating macabre journey back through time and lines of historic dialogue and tableaus. Just ignore the few minor tangents and stay seated, you don't want to miss the final act.

With many thanks to Bloomsbury USA and NetGalley who sent me an advanced copy of Death by Shakespeare: Snakebites, Stabbings and Broken Hearts.

DNF at 21%. I wanted to love this, but I just couldn't get into it. I blame the global pandemic. The beginning was more dry and technical than I was able to handle at the time.

I really enjoyed this book, as I knew I would It's fascinating and would be a good recommendation both for fans of Historical Nonfiction and Science Nonfiction. Definitely for people who are fans of both "The Poisoner's Handbook" and "The Radium Girls." Thank you to NetGalley, Kathryn Harkup, and Bloomsbury Sigma for sending me the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

“Plague shaped Shakespeare’s life,” Kathryn Harkup writes in her new book.
Death By Shakespeare: Snakebites, Stabbings and Broken Hearts (Bloomsbury Sigma, 368 pages, May 2020 publication date.) The first outbreak of the Plague during Shakespeare’s lifetime occurred three months after his birth in 1564, and he was among only one-third of the children in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon to survive. He was just starting to make his name as a playwright in London in 1592, when there was a severe outbreak that resulted in the shuttering of the theaters – drying up opportunity for playwriting and thus pushing the Bard to become a poet, which arguably enhanced his writing when he returned to drama.
Plague was so common at the time that authorities decreed that theaters could reopen if the weekly death rate from the epidemic sunk below 50 for three consecutive weeks.
And so, Harkup says, it’s no surprise that the Plague pervades Shakespeare’s plays – though never graphically. “It is almost as though the topic were too terrifying to mention or show onstage,” she writes. Instead, the Plague figures in many of the insults that are featured in every one of Shakespeare’s play. The mortally wounded Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet shouts out “A plague o’both your houses.”
The Bard had no trouble directly mentioning and showing other diseases, such as malaria, called ague at the time, which the author has counted in eight of his plays.
Diseases are just some of the remarkable variety of ways that Shakespeare’s characters die. One reason for this is that death confronted Elizabethans far more intimately than it does nowadays (the author of course writing pre-pandemic.)
Harkup, who has a Ph.D in chemistry, and has written two previous books on much the same model – “A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie,” and “Making the Monster: The Science of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” – devotes some dense pages to analyzing the Bard’s depictions of deaths for their accuracy. Bottom line: The Bard was pretty accurate, with more extensive medical knowledge than any other playwright in his day, perhaps in part because his daughter married a doctor.
“Shakespeare’s plays are littered with the bodies of characters who have died of grief, remorse, love or some other strong emotion,” she writes in chapter 10, the penultimate chapter. “More than one character appears to die of a guilty conscience. For example, in Richard II, the ‘Abbot of Westminster/with clog of conscience and sour melancholy/Has yielded up his body to the grave.'” Harkup spends the rest of the chapter, some 20 pages,offering medical diagnoses for specific incidents in the plays.
Harkup even provides analyses of the fake deaths in the plays. She explains that, without the tools of modern medicine, it wasn’t easy to detect when somebody was dead, rather than in a coma, and so it wasn’t just fanciful that Shakespeare’s characters could be mistaken for dead, or convincingly fake their deaths. On the other hand, the author spends five pages suggesting various drugs that Juliet used to fake her death, and explaining the reasons why each was impossible or unlikely. A poison found in puffer fish called TTX could have produced the effect, but puffer fish weren’t known in England for another two centuries. “One remote possibility is that trade with south-east Asia brought the knowledge, or rumour, of such substances into Europe much earlier and inspired stories of death-simulating potions.”
She speculates in a similar exhaustive manner about the specific cause of Shakespeare’s own death (she makes a methodical if not wholly committed case for typhoid fever), but points out that the age at which he died, 52, was far older than the average life expectancy of the time.
“Death by Shakespeare” doesn’t just fact-check the playwright’s scripts. The author uses death as the lens by which to describe life in Elizabethan England – the conditions, the attitudes, the practices surrounding death.
The ostensible reason for doing this is to provide a historical context in order to understand Shakespeare’s choices. Only one of Shakespeare’s characters dies in a hospital (Doll in Henry V), because sixteenth century London had only three hospitals, one for the insane, all strictly for the poor, and “few of those who entered expected to leave.”
The conditions of theatergoing itself at the time, described graphically, also illuminates the playwright’s choices. A trip to the theater would have been an assault on all the senses. A combination of foul smells from the nearby polluted river, bearbaiting arenas and the neighborhood breweries and tanneries (known collectively as the ‘stink trades’) would have pervaded the air.A “foul and pestilent congregation of vapours” as Hamlet put it.
The performers used real swords, and the author catalogues several accidentai audience injuries, even fatalities.
When the playwright referred to the stage as “this unworthy scaffold” in Henry V, he was comparing it to sites of execution, observes the author, who says Elizabethan playwrights were competing with audiences that went to bear-baiting and that “the public could witness floggings, dismemberment and executions of criminals for free.” This, she says, is why Shakespeare’s plays are so bloody.In Henry VI, three different decapitated heads are brought on stage.
But “Death by Shakespeare” often goes way beyond anything connected to the playwright or the theater. Some of the information is intriguing, if ghastly. The barber poles that you still see outside barber shops were created when barbers were also surgeons. The red and white striped poles signified the blood and bandages of their profession. But the chapter on the Plague offers detailed scientific explanations of the causes and effects of the Plague, and its history in Europe, and gets graphic in a way that Shakespeare’s plays never did — far more than I really wanted to know, despite (or maybe because of) its newfound relevance.

Death by Shakespeare is a comprehensive look at how characters die in Shakespeare. Each chapter of this book covered a different method of death which I found very interesting. It was so detailed and no one was overlooked. This is the second book I have read by Kathryn Harkup and I have found her to be very concise and well-informed. I appreciate how each manner of death is looked at in real life as well as in Shakespeare’s work. An unexpected pleasure was discovering how Shakespeare lived in the 1600s And what life would’ve looked like for those around him. I have never learned about Shakespeare in this way before and I am glad for the experience. I did receive a copy from Netgalley but I listened to the audio and found it a great way to immerse myself.

This is the perfect book for Shakespeare fans and novices. This book was well researched, engaging, and entertaining. I learned so much. I recently watched the show Upstart Crow with David Mitchell and this book was the perfect companion piece.

“Shakespeare understood death in a way that we don’t today.”

Death By Shakespeare was a deep dive into all things death in Shakespeare. Honestly, this might be my top read so far of 2020! It was an amazing look into Elizabethan England’s relationship with death and it’s normality and entertainment factor. The attention to detail and history was insane! Before even diving into Shakespeare, Harkup started off with an extensive look at how life and death in Elizabethan England was vastly different from our own. There was information about hygiene and disease that was common knowledge, mixed with a lot of facts that were new, at least to me. It did remind me of why I am happy that I live in this time period and not Shakespeare’s!

Harkup also focused on other playwrights of the era and the relationship with death in their works. It was interesting to learn about the collaboration that was happening and to see the comparison between how other writers wrote death into their plays and how Shakespeare wrote it. In the meat of the book, each chapter was a different form of death and dove into the different ways that form of death was present in Shakespeare’s work.

Death By Shakespeare is a must read for any Shakespeare fans. Or any fans of the spooky and macabre. I honestly loved it!

I love reading books that provide some kind of external context about other books or works -- whether it's historical context, criticism, and, in the case of Kathryn Harkup's Death by Shakespeare, scientific context. Death by Shakespeare explores the many deaths in Shakespeare's plays and provides insightful looks into how contemporaries handled disease and death, and Harkup explores these topics with clarity, empathy, and humor. Shakespeare's body of work can be daunting and difficult for modern readers, but Harkup presents her research in an engaging way that is entertaining and in reach.

I loved the intersections of contemporary and modern medicine, as well as the examinations of how the deaths in the plays were (or weren't) performed on stage. Death today seems so far removed from our society, yet in Shakespeare's day, death was actively part of every day life. This was also something weird to read at this present time with the coronavirus pandemic because I'm confronted by death daily and still so far removed from it because no one I know has contracted it, but Shakespeare and his contemporaries confronted death in all its causes in such close proximity that it was difficult to ignore, even in his own work. The thing I loved most about Death by Shakespeare is the connection of the historical and everyday life with the science because it made everything feel so much more real. Like death, history seems something so far removed from us that we sometimes forget that history is populated by people living lives with emotional scope and depth as people live today, so in a way, putting Shakespeare's plays into context like, along with any contextual criticism, this brings the humanity of these plays to the surface.

This is something that would be beneficial to anyone reading and studying Shakespeare as it provides an engaging and accessible look into the reasons why Shakespeare likely used certain kinds of poisons, murders, and avenues of death in his work. Personally, I know having this historical/literary/scientific context when I was taking my Shakespeare course in undergrad would have added so much to my enjoyment and understanding of the plays, but I'm glad to have read it now!

What a fabulous read! If you are a fan of Shakespeare and the Elizabethan era, you'll be fascinated by Kathryn Harkup's analysis of death and dying in the works of Shakespeare. The book is a presentation of serious but very Shakespearean scholarship--but its quirky perspective makes it witty and sharp. An excellent read.

One of the arguments made by critics to "prove" that the historical William Shakespeare could not have written Shakespeare's works is the extensive knowledge of death and disease displayed by the author. Kathryn Harkup sets out to prove that not only would Shakespeare have had considerable knowledge about death and disease, but his audience would have first-hand knowledge as well. Death is far more sanitized today - in the 16th century, a family member or close friend would have been cared for at home, all the way up to preparing the body for burial. Public executions, blood sports, and battle injuries would also have been common knowledge. Although not every play includes a death, almost every one of Shakespeare's works includes at least one reference to disease. Overall, an interesting and different study of William Shakespeare's works. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eArC in exchange for a review.

I was given this book by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Death By Shakespeare by Kathryn Harkup was an unexpected delight. I LOVED this book. I thought I was going into a nonfiction that would somehow set up each of Shakespeare's plays by death and analyze them. That's not what this book is. This book was one part history, one part science and one part literary analysis. I ate it up. The author of the book does a wonderful job in placing the reader in Elizabethan England and giving them a full immersion into Shakespeare's world. My favorite chapter was to the one discussing plague and syphilis. I would have loved to read this book in college. I also think anyone interested in Shakespeare, or the 16th/17th century, or medical history will love this book. It was like Shakespeare mixed with my favorite podcast Sawbones. I've already recommended it to someone to buy it.

Thank you to NetGalley for an arc of Death By Shakespeare.

When I saw the hook had to do with death and dismemberment in Shakespeare, I quickly sent in a request. I love all things dark, deadly and morbid.

This was a fascinating and insightful look at the works of Shakespeare, but in a way I've never thought of.

There were so many things I didn't know about Shakespeare; I did know his inspiration for MacBeth and Romeo and Juliet came from previous works, but I didn't know that went for many of his plays and poets.

Shakespeare derived much of his original work from previous compositions but made his retellings uniquely his own using creative license and talent.

Shakespeare drew from real life, the hardships and toil of living in Elizabethan London; it was dirty, filthy and poor for the majority of the population, and death and sickness was just part and parcel of survival during these difficult times

It's not surprising that most of his characters meet untimely and unfortunate ends, for the most part, derived from true to life situations and circumstances that befell a commoner, elite or royalty.

Shakespeare drew from life, like most authors, and applied it to his work, also pulling inspiration from medical journals and personal experience.

The author has done extensive research and it shows; the book is divided into sections, such as poisons and drownings, and there are snippets of Shakespeare's work to draw reference from as she delves into the what and hows of how a person can or would not survive such a particular tragic demise.

Ms. Harkup notes how sensitively Shakespeare wrote about certain topics, such as suicide, an enlightened perspective considering how many centuries ago this was.

His insightful portrayal of people suffering from sleeping disorders is also notable to mention, such as how guilt can interfere with a person's mental health.

Shakespeare was not just talented, but unique in that he portrayed humanity in all walks of life, demonstrating not just their good and bad sides, but their humaneness.

If you're interested in Shakespeare, but don't want to read any of his stuff, read Death By Shakespeare.

It's fascinating, amusing and will leave you thinking long after you're done.

Death by Shakespeare: Snakebites, Stabbings, and Broken Hearts by Kathryn Harkup is a fascinating look at the history and and the science behind the deaths in Shakespeare's classic plays. She also provides an excellent look at the his world and that of the theater of the period. Each chapter in this book covers a type of death that appears in Shakespeare's work and tries to answer the how behind them as well as how it translates in the real world. If you're at all interested in Shakespeare, the history of theater, and even forensics, I have a feeling you'll be interested in this book.

I'm not very sure about this one. Where to start...
It wasn't at all what I had expected. I thought it was going to be a fun informative read, instead it was rather long and serious. I lost interest at a few parts and even skipped a couple pages here and there because it didn't catch my interest.
Despite it not being what I had expected and a bit boring at times, it was still an interesting read that thought me a few things I didn't know.

***Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Expected release date May 5, 2020.***

3.5 – 4 stars

Overall, this was an interesting book detailing the various deaths in Shakespeare’s work and comparing them to typical Elizabethan life. At times there seemed to be a bit of information overload … if pairing with a study of Shakespeare, it would probably have seemed perfect.

This book shows the Bard’s work in a way you’ve never seen before. I’m not a big fan of Shakespeare’s but, as anyone with a pulse, I’m familiar with many of his plays. I also love crime fiction and Death by Shakespeare taught me about history, literature, anatomy and forensics. What is the difference between poison and venom? What poison killed Hamlet’s dad? How long did it take Mercutio to bleed to death? How did Othello murder Desdemona? How could “death by bear attack” be staged back in the day? The author takes a fascinating look into all this and explains the science in a language that’s easy to understand for laypeople. The psychology of the characters is also explored, as well as the historical setting in which Shakespeare wrote. I learned about some of his more obscure plays (Titus Andronicus must be added to my TBR Stat!) and remembered plots that I hadn’t thought about in ages. This is a fascinating book that will appeal to many readers.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/ Bloomsbury USA!