Leonard Honan was een Amerikaanse academicus en auteur die zich specialiseerde in de levens van Britse auteurs en dichters. Zijn werk richtte zich op literaire biografieën, waarin hij het leven en werk van belangrijke figuren van het Elizabethaanse tijdperk tot de Victoriaanse periode onderzocht. Honans stijl werd gekenmerkt door diepgaand inzicht in het creatieve proces en de historische context, waardoor lezers boeiende en geïnformeerde perspectieven kregen op literaire grootheden. Zijn academische carrière in Engeland en de Verenigde Staten vormden zijn expertise en droegen bij aan zijn reputatie als toonaangevend literair biograaf.
Park Honan's landmark biography of Jane Austen has been lavished with praise since its original publication. Written in an accessable atyle and meticulously researched, this book combones intanacy with Austen as a child and a woman.
Christopher Marlowe: Poet and Spy is the most thorough and detailed biography of Marlowe since John Bakeless's in 1942. This exciting book highlights Marlowe's career as a part-time spy, as well as his evolving relations, especially with Shakespeare. We see how his creative imagination helped save him, even among thugs, and brought him brief, dazzling success. This book also sheds new light on the fight at Deptford and Marlowe's death. Based on new research, Christopher Marlowe: Poet and Spy includes a wealth of fascinating material which brings a new perspective to the life and times of Marlowe.
In the most complete, accurate, and up-to-date narrative of Shakespeare's life ever written, Park Honan uses a wealth of fresh information to dramatically alter our perceptions of the actor, poet, and playwright.The young poet's relationships, his early courtship of Anne Hathaway, their marriage, his attitudes to women such as Jennet Davenant, Marie Mountjoy, and his own daughters, are seen in a new light, illuminating Shakespeare's needs, habits, passions and concerns. Park Honan examines the world of the playing companies -- the power of patronage, theatrical conditions, and personal rivalries -- to reveal the relationship between the man and the writing, and using previously unpublished materialexplores the causes of Shakespeare's success; Stratford childhood, his parents' capabilities, and his preparations for a London career. Shakespeare: A Life casts new light on the complexity and fascination of Shakespeare's life and his extraordinary development as an artist.
Mohutný tvůrčí zjev anglického básníka, zdaleka nejhranějšího dramatika všech dob, přitahuje pozornost nejen tvorbou, nýbrž i dlouhou řadou otazníků, které nám klade jeho osobnost, počínaje jednoduchou otázkou: Kdo vlastně byl William Shakespeare? V Čechách má Shakespearovo dílo skvělou tradici a je nanejvýš potřebné, aby český čtenář konečně dostal do ruky seriózní, poučené a moderní vypsání toho, co o Shakespearově životě současná věda ví. Kniha anglického profesora Honana vyšla v roce 1998 v nakladatelství Oxford University Press a byla recenzenty jednomyslně oceněna jako odborně vynikající a čtenářsky neobyčejně poutavá práce.