Shakespeare, Bacon, and the Great Unknown

"Shakespeare, Bacon, and the Great Unknown" by Andrew Lang is an investigation into the arguments about who really wrote William Shakespeare's plays. The book looks at ideas that someone else, like Francis Bacon or a mysterious unknown author, was actually behind the famous works. Lang explains the different viewpoints of people who believe Bacon wrote the plays, called Baconians, and those who think Shakespeare from Stratford was the real author. He looks at historical ideas and different arguments from both sides. The beginning of the book introduces the debate and mentions people like Mr. G. G. Greenwood, who didn’t think Shakespeare actually wrote the plays and thought an unnamed genius did. Lang describes the main beliefs of the Baconians and the Stratfordians and shows that even experts don't agree. The book gets ready to examine these arguments more closely and shows how complicated the discussion is because of evidence, guessing, and love for literature.