[A] splendid Marxist exploration of Shakespeare's work...Victor Kiernan was a historian to rank with Eric Hobsbawm and Christopher Hill. His approach to Shakespeare is based on a deep historical understanding of the contradictions of the period, which makes him deeply sensitive to what the plays reveal.

International Socialism Journal

[Kiernan's] detailed knowledge of the plays and the period they emerged from give an enormous authority to his analysis of the forces at work in them. He covers the entire canon, including the sonnets and the comedies but his analysis of the histories is central.

Morning Star

The strength of this book lies in the total view of political and social conditions of the period which underpins it ... Unlike so many other books on Shakespeare … it will not scare off the non-academic reader.

The Guardian

This book rests on a lifetime's thinking about history. It helps us see Shakespeare in “a more realistic light”.

Times Literary Supplement

Victor Kiernan is one of the best historians of seventeenth-century England. And he is also a sensitive literary critic. The combination of these gifts makes his book a remarkable achievement. It will become a classic.

Christopher Hill