Searching for Juliet: The Lives and Deaths of Shakespeare's First Tragic Heroine

Description

A cultural, historical and literary exploration of the birth, death and legacy of the ultimate romantic heroine - Shakespeare's Juliet Capulet 'An astonishing tour-de-force... Juliet has found the biographer she deserves' Marion Turner Juliet Capulet is the heartbeat of the world's most famous love story. She is an enduring romantic icon. And she is a captivating, brilliant, passionate teenage girl who is read and interpreted afresh by each new generation. Searching for Juliet takes us from the Renaissance origin stories behind William Shakespeare's child bride to the boy actor who inspired her creation onstage. From enslaved people in the Caribbean to Italian fascists in Verona, and real-life lovers in Afghanistan. From the Victorian stage to 1960s cinema, Baz Luhrmann, and beyond. Sophie Duncan draws on rich cultural and historical sources and new research to explore the legacy and reach of Romeo and Juliet far beyond the literary sphere. With warmth, wit and insight, she shows us why Juliet is for now, for ever, for everyone. 'Original, stylish and compelling . . . It's a marvellous book, and one that delivers a powerfully inspiring message to the young Juliets of our own troubled times' Miranda Seymour 'Breathtaking in its range, this is far more than a deep dive into an ocean of Juliets (although it is, gloriously, that): it is a powerful, witty, and provocative exploration of sex and gender, youth and age, love and death' Anna Beer

Dr Sophie Duncan is a Research Fellow and Dean for Welfare at Magdalen College, University of Oxford. She writes about Shakespeare, gender and race in theatre history, and acts as an historical advisor to theatre, radio and television. She was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and now lives in Oxford.

I love the combination of authority, research, anger, and dry wit. Sophie Duncan shows us that Juliet has created templates for young women that are both enabling and stifling - and traces that paradox unflinchingly across slave plantations, teenage mental health, and the erotics of the beautiful dead girl. Searching for Juliet offers the play and its reception a fresh kind of attention: a sort of tough love which avoids sentimentality without becoming cynical. Really eye-opening -- Emma Smith In Verona, an office answers letters posted to Juliet from all over the world. At college, Romeo and Juliet is the top Shakespeare pick by students for their studies. Tracing Juliet's afterlife through many an enthralling by-way, Sophie Duncan begins this original, stylish and compelling narrative with the enthralling and sometimes poignant story of the boy actors and young women who first took on the role of Shakespeare's first eponymous - and wonderfully spirited - heroine. It's a marvellous book, and one that delivers a powerfully inspiring message to the young Juliets of our own troubled times -- Miranda Seymour, author of I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys Breathtaking in its range, this is far more than a deep dive into an ocean of Juliets (although it is, gloriously, that): it is a powerful, witty, and provocative exploration of sex and gender, youth and age, love and death -- Dr Anna Beer, author of Eve Bites Back: An Alternative History of English Literature Sophie Duncan's wonderful new book tells the story of the most famous love story of Western literature as you've never seen it before. This story is an astonishing tour-de-force . . . Duncan does not shy away from the dark side of this story but her absolute passion for the subject shines through on every page. Juliet has found the biographer she deserves -- Marion Turner, author of The Wife of Bath: A Biography Bursting with energy, wit, and page-turning satisfaction, Sophie Duncan's book unpacks the rich, and sometimes uncomfortable cultural history of Shakespeare's Juliet -- Gilli Bush-Bailey, author of Treading the Bawds: Actresses and Playwrights on the Late Stuart Stage Sophie Duncan uses her expertise in theatre history to give us both a biography of Shakespeare's Juliet and a capacious cultural study of people and politics. Duncan takes us from Shakespeare's stage through plantation slaves to Mussolini's Italy. She writes with wit and acumen, so that the story of Juliet across the centuries is imbued with personality and compassion. This is an extraordinary achievement -- Laurie Maguire, author of The Rhetoric of the Page