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ratings: ★★★★☆ (4/5)
Genre: History / Biography / Literary History / London History

Book Review:
Catharine Arnold's Globe is a delightful and immersive journey into the London that shaped—and was shaped by—William Shakespeare. Arnold, acclaimed author of Necropolis and City of Sin, has a gift for bringing the past to vivid life, and here she turns her attention to the teeming, turbulent city of Elizabethan and Jacobean England. This is not a conventional biography of Shakespeare; it's a biography of his London, a city of stark contrasts, where the splendor of the court existed alongside the squalor of the slums, where bear-baiting pits and brothels stood alongside the new playhouses. Arnold traces the story of the Globe itself, from its origins as timbers carried across the Thames from the original Theatre in Shoreditch, to its destruction by fire in 1613, its rebuilding, and its final destruction by Cromwell's Puritans. She also tells the remarkable story of its 20th-century rebirth. Along the way, we meet the colorful characters who inhabited Shakespeare's world—actors, playwrights, entrepreneurs, and royals. The Historical Novel Society calls it ''a wonderful read,'' and The Lady gives it ''five stars... a necessity for any Shakespeare aficionado.'' Richly detailed and engagingly written, this book is a treat for anyone who loves Shakespeare, London, or simply a great story.