Shaken

I found Ron Rosenbaum's The Shakespeare Wars highly flawed but still fascinating. Now comes the esteemed Anne Barton, and she absolutely rips the book in The New York Review of Books. She sounds a tad defensive (and unpersuasive) when she insists that Shakespearians really are a peaceful lot and not at all riven by arguments. But otherwise, I sheepishly stand corrected on a number of points, such as Mr. Rosenbaum's accuracy (on others -- such as his improbable preference for Shakespeare on DVD over Shakespeare on stage as somehow more "Shakespearian" -- we are very much in agreement). Professor Barton is far more convincing, more scholarly, in her arguments against the book than the NYTimes' Michiko Kakutani's almost peevish dislike of it and everything about it.