Shakespeare has been the bane of the high school students’ existence for so long that most of us barely think twice about him. We read the plays, study the vague bits of his life, pass the test (or don't) and move on. We're never encouraged to delve very far into what little is known about him. It turns out that the truth may be so much more dramatic then we thought.

For more than 200 years both scholars and amateurs, alike, have debated who wrote the works attributed to William Shakespeare. This debate has become widely known as The Authorship Question. Sweet Swan of Avon: Did a Woman Write Shakespeare? introduces us to the theory and evidence which supports Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke, as a possible author of the Shakespearean works.

There isn't a man or woman alive who hasn't heard of William Shakespeare, the man who is credited for the most famous and influential literature ever to be written in the English language. Imagine the upheaval of the literary world if it were to be discovered that these works were penned by another.

The bits and pieces that are available about the man named William Shakespeare speak of a man who was deeply in debt for the majority of his adult life. He was most certainly an actor, and possibly a broker of plays. He was married to an older woman who produced several children for him. He left this woman to move to London to pursue his acting career. That is about the extent of what we know. There are no extent plays in his handwriting. The only pieces of information in his handwriting are bills of sale for property and various legal documents on which he never spelled his own last name the same way. The spelling of his last name seems to have been ever-changing. In addition, William Shakespeare was never known as a writer. He was known as a second-rate actor but comments from his peers are surprisingly bare regarding the body of work in his name. Wide critical acclaim did not begin until 50 years after his death. Why then do we just assume that he wrote these items? He lived in a time when plagiary and theft was rampant and talented female writers could not express themselves without endangering their reputation. How then did William Shakespeare come by the plays that are in his name?

Also residing in and around London at this time was an incredibly intelligent and well-educated woman name Mary Sidney. Sidney was from a family of intellectuals who wrote poetry and plays as entertainment for themselves and their circle of noble friends. She ran a regular salon devoted to the literary arts. She and her husband owned their own acting company, The Lord Pembroke's Men. Mary Sidney was a woman ahead of her time; she wrote plays and poetry, she preferred to use her maiden name instead of her husband’s last name, and she was patroness to many writers of the day. However Mary Sidney was a member of the nobility, therefore had she published anything in her name it could reflect badly on herself and her family. By all accounts she was a prolific writer and she was well-known among the established writers of her day. Is it possible that the works attributed to William Shakespeare were not written by him at all? Is it possible that he was simply the beard for a noblewoman who would not stop writing?

The BookWhore’s Opinion: Rating: 4 Stars

To back up her theories the author has an extensive and rather exhausting list of tables, charts, and timelines. When laid side-by-side it is apparent that Mary Sidney would have much more connection to the ideas and themes in the Shakespearean plays then William Shakespeare. There is so much information in this book that it is impossible to accurately summarize it without writing a novel. The points that laid out here are only the merest hint of what the author gives the reader. Suffice to say that she has done an amazing job of testing and proving her theory. I actually enjoyed reading the sonnets when I kept the viewpoint of "author as woman". It all seems to make so much more sense now and I'm contemplating buying the sonnets to delve more deeply.

As one final bit of proof I will leave you with this bit of Shakespeare's Eulogy, written by Ben Johnson, the self-proclaimed "Poet Laureate" of the day:

These are, as some infamous Baud, or Whore,
Should praise a Matron. What could hurt her more?
But thou art proofe against them, and indeed
Above th' ill fortune of them, or the need.

Sweet swan of Avon! what a fight it were
To see thee in our waters yet appeare,
And make those flights upon the bankes of Thames,
That so did take Eliza, and our James !

Jezebel’s Opinion: Rating: 4 1/2 Stars

I appreciate the fact that the author clearly states that her purpose of this book is not to prove that Mary Sidney wrote the works, but to evoke the curiosity of others to bring about further research of Mary Sidney as a candidate. All too often, we see books that preach the author's views where the author states "My theory is correct. This is the way it happened." However in this book, the author has clearly avoids claiming that the possibility is fact. Instead, she presents us with the question of the authorship and simply states documented facts and sequences of events, which would support the possibility. Additionally, the author has very carefully drawn the line between documented facts and pure speculation.

For those who enjoy controversy, history, or simply have an appreciation for the writings of Shakespeare, I highly recommend this book. It was very well written and easy to follow, even for those who may not be familiar with the history or with the works themselves. I have found the appendices very useful from interpretations of the works, to Mary Sidney's lineage, to a brief synopsis of the other candidates of The Authorship Question. The only pitfall to this book is the fact that the author repeats scenarios and events, which makes some parts of the book seem monotonous, however she also notes that she did this to make the series of events easier to follow for those who tend to not remember all the facts and information that they have already read.

Whether the writer of the Shakespearean works is Shakespeare himself, or another, I leave you to ponder the following:

Or I shall live our epitaph to make,
Or you survive when I in earth am rotten,
From hence your memory death cannot take,
Although in me each part will be forgotten.

You still shall live (such virtue hath my pen)
Where breath most breathes, even in the mouths of men.

Sonnet 81

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Publisher: Peachpit Press; 1st edition (March 15, 2006)
ISBN: 0321426401
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