Death by Shakespeare

Snakebites, Stabbings and Broken Hearts

By: Kathryn Harkup

Narrated by: Nicky Diss

Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

Bloomsbury presents Death By Shakespeare by Kathryn Harkup, read by Nicky Diss.

A deep dive into the science behind the creative ways Shakespeare killed off his characters.

William Shakespeare found dozens of different ways to kill off his characters, and audiences today still enjoy the same reactions – shock, sadness, fear – that they did more than 400 years ago when these plays were first performed. But how realistic are these deaths, and did Shakespeare have the knowledge to back them up?

In the Bard’s day death was a part of everyday life. Plague, pestilence and public executions were a common occurrence, and the chances of seeing a dead or dying body on the way home from the theatre were high. It was also a time of important scientific progress. Shakespeare kept pace with anatomical and medical advances, and he included the latest scientific discoveries in his work, from blood circulation to treatments for syphilis. He certainly didn’t shy away from portraying the reality of death on stage, from the brutal to the mundane, and the spectacular to the silly.

Elizabethan London provides the backdrop for Death by Shakespeare, as Kathryn Harkup turns her discerning scientific eye to the Bard and the varied and creative ways his characters die. Was death by snakebite as serene as Shakespeare makes out? Could lack of sleep have killed Lady Macbeth? Can you really murder someone by pouring poison in their ear? Kathryn investigates what actual events may have inspired Shakespeare, what the accepted scientific knowledge of the time was, and how Elizabethan audiences would have responded to these death scenes. Death by Shakespeare will tell you all this and more in a rollercoaster of Elizabethan carnage, poison, swordplay and bloodshed, with an occasional death by bear-mauling for good measure.

©2020 Kathryn Harkup (P)2020 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Fascinating… and a bit gross

This book was fascinating! It looks at the different ways characters die in Shakespeare, how the body reacts to these things, and what was known about it at the time, versus what we know now with modern scientific advancement. I liked it and the narrator was great! But if you’re squeamish about medical content, maybe avoid this one.

Death, history and Shakespeare 🫀💀🩸

I really enjoyed this! It tickled my nerd perfectly with its combination of death, history and Shakespeare. The structure works well and the research is there. It's too bad however, that it seems to have gone through the editing without much care. It contains so much repetition, as if each single paragraph is supposed to be read separately. Somewhere in the middle I started to feel slightly aggravated, as I really think this book deserves better! Regardless of this sloppiness, I thoroughly recommend it! 💀