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Rating: 
Summary: Poorly written.
Review: (...) I love Shakespeare, and I thought this book would be
informative, but I was sadly mistaken. Marx uses mainly his own
opinion as "proof" of connections between Shakespeare and
the Bible. Of course there are "connections"--Shakespeare
lived in Elizabethan England. But I wouldn't go so far as to compare
King Lear to Job or The Tempest to Revelations. Marx's comparisions
are feable and superficial at best.He remains unconvincing
throughout the book, which he pitifully tried to force into a format
like Shakespeare's plays. Each chapter is divided into "five
acts." I would have thought an intellectual would have realized
this format was completely wrong for a non-fiction piece. There are better books out there.
Rating: 
Summary: Kiss the book!
Review: Marx' analyses of the parallels between Shakespeare and particular parts of the Bible are astute. The Biblical themes of suffering and redemption, (as in the Pentateuch, the Book of Job, and Revelations, among those discussed by Marx) are such a rich vein throughout Western literature, stemming from its first "book," the Bible, that it is actually odd that more people don't pick up on this aspect of Shakespeare; too often people read him for his sexual politics or Greco-Roman ethics. But Shakespeare is much larger than just these, or the sum of them...
Marx' book is excellent cross analysis in the same style as Harold Bloom and Northrup Frye. You will have a better sense of Shakespeare, The Bible, and your own life and what the hell to do with it after reading this slim but satisfying study. Before or after you read this, check out Northrup Frye's two volume study on the Bible, and virtually everything by Harold Bloom. Also read Herbert Schneidau's "Sacred Discontent," for a full historical analysis of the profound influence of the Bible on Western Culture. Love it or hate it, you've got to understand it.
Rating:
Summary: Kiss the book!
Review: Marx' analyses of the parallels between Shakespeare and particular parts of the Bible are astute. The Biblical themes of suffering and redemption, (as in the Pentateuch, the Book of Job, and Revelations, among those discussed by Marx) are such a rich vein throughout Western literature, stemming from its first "book," the Bible, that it is actually odd that more people don't pick up on this aspect of Shakespeare; too often people read him for his sexual politics or Greco-Roman ethics. But Shakespeare is much larger than just these, or the sum of them...
Marx' book is excellent cross analysis in the same style as Harold Bloom and Northrup Frye. You will have a better sense of Shakespeare, The Bible, and your own life and what the hell to do with it after reading this slim but satisfying study. Before or after you read this, check out Northrup Frye's two volume study on the Bible, and virtually everything by Harold Bloom. Also read Herbert Schneidau's "Sacred Discontent," for a full historical analysis of the profound influence of the Bible on Western Culture. Love it or hate it, you've got to understand it.
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