The Dark Side of Shakespeare:An Iron-fisted Romantic in England's Most Perilous Times

About the Book

"Plunging into the complexities of Elizabethan history, Hess raises a host of provocative questions about Shakespeare's identity and the controversial character of the 17th earl of Oxford, the leading candidate for authorship honors. Wide reading informs his answers, and he doesn't shy from proposing linkages, motivations and ingenious theories to make sense of the historical records and answer the many questions about Oxford's life. His work on Don Juan of Austria may well prove to have opened a new perspective on that military leader's connection to Shakespeare."

-Richard F. Whalen, author, Shakespeare: Who Was He?

"The Dark Side of Shakespeare is an original and stimulating book that takes the authorship debate in unexpected new directions. Even those who reject its conclusions will find plenty to think about."

-Joseph Sobran, author, "Alias Shakespeare"

About the Author

W. Ron Hess, CISSP, CDP, obtained a B.A. in European and Russian History and an M.S. in Computer Science, works as a Computer Security Officer (in which trade he has been a widely published expert), teaches in the "Practitioner Faculty" of Johns Hopkins University's Graduate School, and is now turning his talents to his "first love," Elizabethan history. After combing through the cataloged archives of the great research libraries of the world, he has obtained bold new evidence about Shakespeare's life, works, and times. Abandoning the traditional "Anglo-centric" view, Mr. Hess declares that Shakespeare was an "internationalist" whose experiences (and abundant allusions to them) straddled a continent and far transcended "Merrie Olde England." However, those experiences had a "dark side," one that permeated the works, illuminated their meaning, and enhanced their value far beyond anything traditional scholarship has been capable of imagining! We understand Shakespeare best of all through his "dark side."