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Published Apr 2019
208 pages
Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion
Publication Information
The remarkable, ridiculous, rain-soaked story of Shakespeare's Jubilee: the event that established William Shakespeare as the greatest writer of all time.
In September 1769, three thousand people descended on Stratford-upon-Avon to celebrate the artistic legacy of the town's most famous son, William Shakespeare. Attendees included the rich and powerful, the fashionable and the curious, eligible ladies and fortune hunters, and a horde of journalists and profiteers. For three days, they paraded through garlanded streets, listened to songs and oratorios, and enjoyed masked balls. It was a unique cultural moment - a coronation elevating Shakespeare to the throne of genius.
Except it was a disaster. The poorly planned Jubilee imposed an army of Londoners on a backwater hamlet peopled by hostile and superstitious locals, unable and unwilling to meet their demands. Even nature refused to behave. Rain fell in sheets, flooding tents and dampening fireworks, and threatening to wash the whole town away.
Told from the dual perspectives of David Garrick, who masterminded the Jubilee, and James Boswell, who attended it, What Blest Genius? is rich with humor, gossip, and theatrical intrigue. Recounting the absurd and chaotic glory of those three days in September, Andrew McConnell Stott illuminates the circumstances in which William Shakespeare became a transcendent global icon.
"Starred Review. A thoroughly enjoyable and engaging literary history." - Kirkus
"Whether or not the Jubilee was the watershed moment in Shakespeare veneration Stott claims, he provides a lively, page-turning narrative, and proves that shamelessly overhyped media events are not just modern phenomena. " - Publishers Weekly
"Yes, Shakespeare's genius is in the work. But in this sprightly volume, Andrew McConnell Stott argues that an eighteenth-century publicity stunt of a weekend - improvised, outsized, and in many ways absurd - put the playwright on the map. Stott's revel sparkles, even in the teeming rain." - Stacy Schiff, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov) and The Witches
"With humor and meticulously researched detail, Andrew McConnell Stott takes us on the circuitous and muddy road from idea to realization of the first Shakespeare Jubilee. His gentle prose makes us feel like we are being let in on inside secrets, preparing us for a comical and surprising denouement." - Andrea Mays, author of The Millionaire and the Bard
"A meticulous, sharply observed, and often funny account of the great Shakespeare Jubilee of 1769, a celebration largely responsible―despite various mishaps - for the notion of semi-divine 'bardic' genius which still encumbers him today." - Charles Nicholl, author of The Lodger Shakespeare: His Life on Silver Street
"Written with all the verve and wit as befits the subject and the age, Andrew McConnell Stott's What Blest Genius? dives headlong into one of the more bizarre events of the eighteenth century - the Stratford-upon-Avon Shakespeare Jubilee of 1769. With a cast including the actor David Garrick, the memoirist James Boswell, and the ghost of Shakespeare himself, Stott elucidates how and why this place and time staged the real genesis of the Shakespeare 'industry' and the nascence of a cultural icon - borne, comically enough, out of the chaos of the world's first literary festival." - Ian Kelly, author of Mr. Foote's Other Leg
This information about What Blest Genius? was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Andrew McConnell Stott is the author of four books. The recipient of the Royal Society of Literature/Jerwood Award for Non-Fiction, he is professor of English at the University of Southern California and lives in Los Angeles.
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