Title: The Shakespeare Thefts: in search of the first folios
Author: Eric Rasmussen
Review: When I mentioned that I was reading this book to a friend who concentrated in Shakespeare studies in college, she said that she could not "get into" the book. I understand. I forged on because the story was so compelling; where are all of the copies of Shakespeare's first folio? The author and his team have spent a great deal of their lives tracking down extant copies of the folio, and recently published "SFF: A Descriptive Catalogue" that is referenced so many times in this book that I wonder if TST is merely a teaser for the earlier book.
But the most egregious impediment to enjoyment of TST is the writing. There are no segues. The author's mid-sentence tense changes, I suspect written to build up suspense (WAS the folio found, or IS the folio still missing /IS the thief in jail or WAS he falsely accused), only confuse and annoy. Oh, what this could have been in the hands of a skilled storyteller. Skip the body and head right to the end notes, where the most intriguing tidbits can be found.
Rating: 2
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