{"product_id":"shakespeares-greatest-love","title":"Shakespeare's Greatest Love","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eRelying on historical and literary evidence hidden in plain sight, \u003ci\u003eShakespeare's Greatest Love\u003c\/i\u003e tells the true, uncensored love story of William Shakespeare and Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.\"\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e --­Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, written for and about Southampton. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Leaving behind a wife and three young children in Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare moved to London for its thrilling theater scene, where everyone mixed freely across ages, classes, and ranks. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e It was through their mutual passion for the theater that the handsome twenty-seven-year-old playwright first met and fell deeply in love with the effeminate seventeen-year-old earl who beguiled men and women alike and avowed that 'desire and pleasure [should] sometimes triumph over reason.' \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Author David Medina demonstrates that Shakespeare wrote more of his plays and poems for and about Southampton than anyone else--works that are sexually charged, romantic, and homoerotic. He also chronicles the evidence that Southampton provided Shakespeare the support he needed to secure his acting company share, coat of arms, family residence, royal commission, life portrait, and funerary bust. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Shakespeare and Southampton's personal and professional relationship evolved privately and publicly over a quarter century against the backdrop of a national anti-sodomy law, multiple plague outbreaks, unexpected pregnancies, rushed and possibly forced marriages, a failed rebellion, and political imprisonments. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eShakespeare's Greatest Love\u003c\/i\u003e challenges us all to recognize Southampton as the individual who had the most significant impact on Shakespeare's life, literature, and legacy. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Disruption Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42923415961636,"sku":null,"price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0743\/8657\/1300\/files\/14358093482769.jpg?v=1763585579","url":"https:\/\/volumebookshop.com\/products\/shakespeares-greatest-love","provider":"Volume Bookshop \u0026 Studio, LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}