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Description
This, the first collection of essays by members of The de Vere Society has been updated for
2022 but its contents are largely identical to the original edition of 2004.
Edward de Vere, seventeenth earl of Oxford, a key figure of the English Renaissance who
lived at the heart of Elizabethan court and cultural events, has a substantial claim to
authorship of the works of ‘Shakespeare’.
Identifying him as the author results in greater understanding of the context, topical
allusions and purpose behind the ‘Works’. The plays and poems reflect on the life history and
psychology of our forebears, just as they themselves are illuminated by political history.
The story of Edward de Vere and his circle shows us the personal sacrifices and common
efforts made so that a great language and literature might be created.
These essays, thirty-nine in all, cover such topics as:
An Introduction to the Oxfordian Case
Shakespeare’s Sources: the Libraries of Lord Burghley and Sir Thomas Smith
The Influence of Italian Art: Giulio Romano and Titian
Historical Truth and The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Places in Shakespeare: Belmont and Thereabouts
Dating the Plays: Hamlet
Measure for Measure and the French Connection
Freud and Oxford
“I would commend this collection as full of enlightened and reasoned research in the quest to
provide material for rational and honest debate. It is not enough to say, “We have the plays and
poems, it does not matter who wrote them.” It matters to me and, I suspect, to a growing
number of others.”
—Sir Derek Jacobi
Further Details
ISBN: 1898594791 | Book Type: softback | Number of Pages: 346
Book Dimensions: 246mm by 189mm | Images: 26 black & white illustrations throughout
Dating Shakespeare’s Plays: A Critical Review of the Evidence
Editor: Kevin Gilvary
Description
This critical review challenges the orthodox scholarly consensus about the order in which Shakespeare composed his plays and when they were written. It reveals surprising discrepancies in date comparisons. King John has been placed by scholars in every year of the decade up to 1598 and there are suggestions that Hamlet's date of 1602, could be as early as 1589.
In this authoritative book, evidence is reviewed methodically to produce a range of dates supported by in-depth analysis of aids to dating such as language, historical allusion the testimony of title pages as well as works by other authors including Palladis Tamia and the Stationers’ Register.
In considering Oxfordian dates, the intention is not to prove the Earl of Oxford authorship but the possibility of a range of earlier dates for each of the 36 plays in the First Folio, and four other plays which have been attributed to Shakespeare.
Kevin Gilvary gained a BA and MA from the University of Southampton and his Doctorate in English Literature from Brunel University London.
“The book is a major comprehensive revision and re-envisioning of the Shakespeare chronology, but it does not set up a rigid chronology of its own. The new chronology is refreshingly diverse, like the world of Shakespeare authorship studies. ...
“In bringing together all of the Oxfordian scholarship on the chronology for the first time, though the only alternative dates it includes are Oxfordian, Dating Shakespeare’s Plays is not dismissive of rival positions, and if anything it is polite and respectful to the orthodox. ...
“So, regardless of one’s position on the authorship question, Dating Shakespeare’s Plays is a most informative and useful book on a subject at the center of the Shakespeare labyrinth. It is not the last word, but rather an advantageous starting point. A historical review of scholarship organized as a reference work, it does not interpret or try to persuade readers that any proposed date is absolute, but systematically presents what scholars have projected, lets readers consider the possibilities, and raises important questions.
“There is a great deal packed into each of the play chapters in the 508 pages of Dating Shakespeare's Plays...”
—William S. Niederkorn (taken from his review in The Brooklyn Rail)
Further Details
ISBN: 9781898594864 | Book Type: paperback / softback | Number of Pages: 520
Book Dimensions: 235mm by 146mm | Images: various black & white illustrations throughout
Extra Publication Notes: First published by Parapress, but now reprinted from its original files and distributed by Portsea Press
RRP: £7.50*
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Charles Dickens's Last Case:
Edwin Drood and the Curious Incident of the Unasked Question
by A. J. (Tony) Pointon
Description
(taken from the book's blurb)
From finishing Our Mutual Friend in 1865 until starting The Mystery of Edwin Drood in 1869, Charles Dickens had time to plot a detective/mystery novel to set a new standard in complexity. Sadly, because it was left unfinished at his death, this meant that the true Villain has remained undetected for 150 years. Critics have often relied on assumption rather than information left by Dickens.
Professor Pointon follows key strands of evidence to Dickens's real intention, many not before noted or given due weight. Thus entirely new light is cast onto the fate of Edwin Drood.
Samples of Reviews
“I wish Tony well with his new book, which certainly challenges a lot of what has been written before, and will no doubt spark a lively debate.”
—Ian Dickens, Introduction
“[I]f you wish to learn the name of ‘the villain’, hidden and hitherto ‘virtually untouched by human heart and brain,’ here is your chance. Open ‘this short book or essay,’ heed the author’s advice, and you will encounter Holmes’s ghost in action, brought to life by A. J. Pointon.”
—David Paroissien, Dickens Quarterly
Further Details
ISBN: 9781916324305 | Book Type: paperback / softback | Number of Pages: 96
Book Dimensions: 254mm by 165mm | Images: 8 black & white illustrations
RRP: £9.00*
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The Battle of Waterloo
– A Foregone Conclusion?
by A. J. (Tony) Pointon
Description
(taken from the book's blurb)
In the 200 years since the Battle of Waterloo was fought in Belgium on Sunday 18th June 1815, it has featured in hundreds of accounts. Some cover that day only, some cover each of the four battles fought over the four-day campaign as former Emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, sought to re-establish himself by capturing Brussels.
Some specialist accounts deal with the exploits of a single fighting unit, while others concentrate on one particular engagement, but almost all have had two features in common. They recognise Waterloo as an iconic event, and they base themselves on the seemingly unchallengeable theory that it was a touch-and-go affair. For as everyone 'knows', the Duke of Wellington stated that the Battle of Waterloo was a near-run-thing. So it was reported in the newspapers immediately afterwards, and the Duke never contradicted it.
As a scientist, author Professor Pointon's training is to test theories, not against how many times have been repeated or against the eminence of those repeating them, but against hard logic and hard facts.
His present account was stimulated when, reviewing the events of that Sunday from a French angle, he felt compelled to check the actual positions of the troops involved. Looking at the hard facts of the four-day campaign in no way diminishes its nail-biting excitement, but it does tend to correct the fictions which historians have allowed to persist.
Further Details
ISBN: 9781898594925 | Book type: paperback / softback | Number of pages: 188
Book dimensions: 210mm by 148mm | Images: 5 black & white maps
RRP: £17.50*
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Great Oxford: Essays on the Life and Works of Edward De Vere
Editor: Richard Malim
RRP: £15.00*
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RRP: £10.00*
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Charlotte Brontë and the Mysteries of Love: Myth and Allegory in Jane Eyre
by Elizabeth Imlay
Description
(taken from the book's blurb)
This critical study examines Jane Eyre in terms of the culture from which it sprang.
Charlotte Brontë was a highly educated and meticulously ingenious writer. By extensive research into Brontë’s reading material and close attention to the text, Imlay shows that the novel is a reworking of the classical fairy-tale ‘Cupid and Psyche’.
Brontë uses the story to describe a 19th-century soul in search of love. From her reading, she also knew of the relationship of the myth to the Platonic mystery tradition.
She takes her wandering heroine, and the responsive reader, through earth, air, fire and water (body, spirit, passion and reason) to arrive in the fifth section of the book as the ‘quintessence’ or human soul, united with Love both spiritual and physical. It is Brontë’s own model of personality.
Imlay further discusses how Brontë manipulates the Platonic tradition to feminist ends by choosing ‘Air’ as a female element.
For an understanding of the full depth and breadth of Charlotte Brontë’s mind, read this book.
Samples of Reviews
“This analytical book was really enlightening as well as compelling; being jam-packed with interesting and well-researched points. It allowed me to more deeply understand the inner workings of Brontë’s thoughts and personality as provides extracts from her personal letters and works she wrote in her childhood as young as 16.
“Overall, I would definitely recommend anyone who enjoyed Jane Eyre.”
—Imogen, ‘Goodreads'
“This is the most intriguing, thought-provoking & surprising book I’ve ever read. It is helpful for the reader to have previous knowledge of the cultural background used by Elizabeth Imlay in constructing her argument. If you don't have this, take time to read up on it (using the book's bibliography.)
“All who are interested in how Brontë’s own reading, cultural milieu & personal experience worked with her intellect and creative imagination to produce the great classic Jane Eyre will find this study rewarding. Fresh insight, indeed, and highly original scholarship.”
—Jan, ‘Goodreads'
Further Details
ISBN: 9781898594925 | Book Type: paperback / softback | Number of Pages: 230
Book Dimensions: 216mm by 150mm | Images: 16 black & white illustrations
RRP: £12.99*
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Humanity Dick: Animal Rights Pioneer and Feared Duellist (2nd edition)
by Peter Phillips
Description
(taken from the book's blurb)
‘Humanity’ Dick Martin both embodied and transcended the colourful Regency period.
Master of vast lands in Connemara, but living in spectacular insolvency, he preferred to survive on the proceeds of smuggling than to charge his tenants rent. Backed by his private army, he protected people and animals alike. A deadly duellist, he conducted a successful vendetta against ‘mad’ Fighting Fitzgerald.
Raised a ‘Protestant of Convenience’ by his Jacobite father, Dick entered the Irish Parliament and for the next 50 years fought for Catholic emancipation, which he believed would only be achieved by peaceful, political ends.
Active in anti-slavery and criminal justice reform, he is especially remembered for his tireless campaign for animal rights. ‘Martin’s Law’ (1822) anticipated all such legislation, and he co-founded what became the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Here is a complex, mercurial and neglected hero, bestriding the two worlds of England and Ireland.
Samples of Reviews
“This is an admirable sort of book – generous in format and layout, well illustrated, inviting and not festooned with any footnotes …”
—Books Ireland
“The life of this swash-buckling eccentric is ‘as good as a play’. Phillips successfully weaves the story of this fascinating individual into its equally dramatic historical context, to create an accessible and entertaining narrative.”
—Times Literary Supplement
"It is an excellent book."
—Kim Stallwood, Animal Advocate
Also rated five stars on Amazon:
“An entertaining look at the lives of Richard Martin &his family, animal rights, dueling, it's all here,a must! I couldn't put it down.”
“… tells his story in way that is comprehensible and at times very funny. Usually this sort of book would take a while for me to read owing to the subject but, I really couldn't put it down...”
Further Details
ISBN: 9781919633107 | Book Type: softback | Number of Pages: 208
Book Dimensions: 240mm by 165mm | Images: 37 black & white illustrations
Distributed in the UK and worldwide by Portsea Press.
RRP: £12.00*
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The Man who was Never Shakespeare
by A. J. Pointon
Description
(taken from the book's blurb)
Was WILLIAM SHAKSPERE, a successful businessman and minor actor from Statford-upon-Avon, the WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, one of the greatest writers of all time?
There is absolutely no doubt that there was a man from Stratford who lived, had children and died under the name of William Shakspere, but was his identity “stolen” to hide the real identity of William Shakespeare, the writer?
The author, Professor A. J. (Tony) Pointon, is a Chartered Engineer and Physicist and has been the Director of Research at the University of Portsmouth, founder and National Secretary of a union for lecturers in higher education, Government-appointed member of ACAS and Chairman of the Council of the International Dickens Fellowship as well as a nationally-rated chess player. He is primarily a problem-solver.
He first became interested in the question of the authorship of the works when invited to defend in debate the claim that they were by a man called William Shakespeare from Stratford-upon-Avon. This led to a serious attempt to collate and substantiate the detailed evidence in favour of that case. When he found that much of what was claimed as evidence was at best suspect, at worst invented, he devoted time to what seemed an obvious problem for solution. This book is the result. The author does not aim to identify who was hidden so carefully behind the pseudonym, “William Shakespeare”; but he does point the way to a resolution of that problem. The aim of this book is to restore to William Shakspere his real identity and show that he is a man who is worthy of a proper study in his own right.
Samples of Reviews
Rated 4.4 out of 5 stars on Amazon:
“Anybody who reads books like this will be very hard-pressed not to conclude that, whoever wrote Shakespeare, it certainly wasn’t Will of Stratford.”
“The book is a must-read, regardless of your beliefs on the ‘Authorship Question’.”
“Given that literary critics have a vested interest, I was very glad to read this book, which is by a scientist, a problem-solver, and a chess player (all the same person). The facts are looked at and conclusions drawn.”
“After this anyone who believes Shakspere was Shakespeare really has not been paying attention.”
“Another good aspect of this book is that it shows us that Shakspere of Stratford was an interesting person in his own right, and that his identity has been stolen. The book returns this identity to him.”
Further Details
ISBN: 9781898594888 | Book Type: paperback / softback | Number of Pages: 304
Book Dimensions: 230mm by 160mm | Images: black & white illustrations throughout
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