Straight Acting

Author: Will Tosh

Of specific Gay & Lesbian interest | Biography: historical, political & military | Biography: literary | Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700

Published on 13^th June 2024 by Hodder & Stoughton (Sceptre) in the United Kingdom.

Hardback | 304 pages
240mm x 156mm | 41g

'Engrossing, enlightening and hugely entertaining'SARAH WATERS, author of Fingersmith'Brilliant - so vivid and so sharp, fantastically clever and consistently fascinating'KATHERINE RUNDELL, author of Super-InfiniteWas Shakespeare gay? The answer is both simpler and more complex than you might think . . .

Shakespeare's work was profoundly influenced by the queer culture of his time - much of it totally integrated into mainstream society. From a relentless schooling in Latin and Greek homoeroticism, to a less formal education on the streets and in smoky taverns, from the gender-bending of the early comedies to the astonishingly queer literary scene that nurtured Shakespeare's sonnets, this is a story of artistic development and of personal crisis.

Straight Acting is a surprising portrait of Shakespeare's queer lives - his own and those in his plays and poems. It is a journey back in time and through Shakespeare's England, revealing a culture that both endorsed and supressed same-sex desire. It is a call to stop making Shakespeare act straight and to recognise how queerness powerfully shaped the life and career of the world's most famous playwright.

'Magisterial and saucy . . . This fresh account kickstarts the queer canon of English literature: Shakespeare won't go back in the closet again'EMMA SMITH, author of This Is Shakespeare