Margreta de Grazia skúma vznik Shakespeara ako moderného autora, pričom sa zameriava na editorstvo osemnásteho storočia a na to, ako sa Hamlet stal psychologickým hrdinom, ktorý zatieňuje jeho záujem o pôdu a práva. Jej práca sa zaoberá Shakespearom ako historickým a kultúrnym fenoménom, ranonovovekými predstavami o subjektivite a autorstve a tým, ako boli ranonovoveké texty produkované a vlastnené. De Grazia analyzuje procesy chronologizácie, periodizácie a sekularizácie Shakespeara, pričom skúma, ako sa tieto procesy formovali.
"Margreta de Grazia continues to change the course of Shakespeare studies in this book, where she focuses on four key terms: anachronism, chronology, periods, and the grand secular narrative. These 'unassailable' terms, once considered the bedrock of what we 'know' and how we study Shakespeare, are now under debate in our particular moment in the study of the past"--
For almost two centuries, Shakespeare had no biography. Neither did his life have a timeline, and historians and archivists did not have the materials to make one. Does this mean that Shakespeare was not valued or understood until after 1800? This book focuses on a critical absence in the unfolding of Shakespeare's story.