The name of William Shakespeare is known to everyone, and his personality and work still arouse keen interest not only in his native England, but throughout the world. An integral part of this interest is the so-called “Shakespearean question” - an attempt to attribute plays, poems and sonnets created by Shakespeare to other authors. In his new book, the famous literary critic and specialist in Shakespeare’s work, Igor Shaitanov, convincingly refutes the arguments of supporters of such views, reconstructing, on the basis of sources known to us, the chronicle of the life of the great playwright and the circumstances of the birth of his works, which even today, hundreds of years after their creation, are not leave readers and viewers indifferent.