- Hardcover
- Publisher: Van Nostrand Reinhold (April 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0415081246
- ISBN-13: 978-0415081245
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
King Lear [with Biographical Introduction]
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
King Lear stands alongside Hamlet as one of the most profound expressions of tragic drama in literature. Written between 1604 and 1605, it represents Shakespeare at the height of his dramatic power. Drawing on ancient British history, Shakespeare constructs a plot that reads like a fable in its clear-sighted but terrifying simplicity. The ageing King Lear calls his daughters, Goneril, Regan and Cordelia, to witness that he wishes "to shake all cares and business from our age" and divide his kingdom between his three children. When Cordelia refuses to flatter her father with sycophantic words of love, her banishment leads to chaos and civil war as Lear's disastrous "division of the kingdom" gives free reign to the greed and ambition of his two remaining daughters.
As Lear sinks into rage and madness he is deserted by everyone except his "bitter" Fool, the loyal Kent and the exiled Cordelia. The play descends into a nighmarish theatre of cruelty and absurdity as Lear realises he has "ta'en/Too little care" of the poverty and corruption of his kingdom, and his loyal but foolish friend Gloucester has his eyes gouged out. Metaphors of monstrosity and perversions of nature structure the dramatic action, and the play's ending remains one of the most harrowing in all of Shakespeare. Many see a profound despair and nihilism in King Lear, and would agree with Kent's conclusion that "All's cheerless, dark, and deadly". Other writers have identified a radical but pessimistic critique of contemporary conceptions of kingship and absolutist authority, yet it remains a remarkable tragedy of public misjudgement and intensely private grief and anguish. --Jerry Brotton --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Review
"...an exemplary consideration of all the new bibliographic explication...Halio has done an admirable job. If all editions of Shakespeare and his contemporaries were similarly conceived and presented, study and understanding of Elizabethan-Jacobean-Caroline drama would be greatly improved." William B. Long, TEXT: Transactions of the Society for Textual Scholarship
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
KENT I thought the King had more affected the Duke of Albany than Cornwall. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
KENT I thought the King had more affected the Duke of Albany than Cornwall. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This volume contains a chronology of Shakespeare and his times (4pp), an introduction to the play (8pp), a commentary on the text (32 pp) and then the text interspersed on alternate pages with notes on the play giving meanings of old words, significance of allusions etc, followed by perspectives on the play (20 pp) and a final bibliography. This volume is fine for general reading but provides additional information as and when you want it. ideal for student of the play.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Without futilely wasting words on one of the most overstudied pieces in the most overstudied literary canon, "King Lear" is staggering. I know a great many who prefer, say, "Hamlet", but, unlike that nebulous stuff, this is the guts. "[I]nnocent frail man" is too cowardly to face it and literature generally serves, to varying degree, some form of illusion or another to feed man's escapist appetite. Admittedly, Shakespeare, as usual, does not keep you interested dramatically, be it by using plot, intrigue or imagination, but the profoundness of the poetry of "Lear" certainly manages to sustain my rapt for VERY NEARLY the entire length of the play. It is just so rare to encounter so absolute a chivalric statement of the intrinsic nothingness of everything. Shakespeare had written in "Hamlet" that nothing is good or bad except man's thinking makes it so; "Lear" expands the net of the conceptual backbone of this notion and illustrates it.
The editor's ideology in this New Swan Shakespeare Advanced Series edition is to create an edition of "King Lear" which concentrates on explaining the text of the play, letting it present itself so that the student on his own may find enjoyment thereof on the play's own merit. The notes are thus congenially printed on pages facing the text and limits themselves to addressing linguistic difficulties; contextual, textual and interpretative issues are discussed minimally and only when it would seem absolutely necessary to do so. There is also a glossary of Shakespeare's vocabulary to assist the modern reader generally. From personal judgement, though it is only contingent, the text appears conservatively modernized - the `it', for instance, is retained as a possessive adjective whenever it occurs. There is a good but not in any way expansive introduction providing the basics of the historical and critical background to the play. Given its age, this edition would be considered dated in scholarly circle, especially since it collates both the quarto and Folio texts which are now held to be separate variants of the play. It should be argued, however, that familiarizing oneself with the text first is the most important thing. For in the real world of performance directors will use newly edited scripts drawn from whatever has survived for the particular productions without so much as the slightest regard for the raison d'être of the extant variants whilst in the academic world - of habitually reading beyond what was ever written and minutely scrupulously - anything at all could only be made of the several versions after the text has been thoroughly learnt.
The type size is probably just a little too small. But the layout is neat and easy to read. The text is marked wherever an explanatory note accompanies it and the notes are posited just a roll of the eyeballs away from what they explain, saving the reader that disruptive annoyance of having to interrupt the reading only to find there to be no note to compensate for it. Overall it probably falls just short of the Arden series in terms of attractiveness. For the general readers, the students and the stage professionals seeking to conceive a production of "King Lear" that is as empathized, fresh and pertinent to our culture as possible, there is no deficiency to detract from this edition.
The editor's ideology in this New Swan Shakespeare Advanced Series edition is to create an edition of "King Lear" which concentrates on explaining the text of the play, letting it present itself so that the student on his own may find enjoyment thereof on the play's own merit. The notes are thus congenially printed on pages facing the text and limits themselves to addressing linguistic difficulties; contextual, textual and interpretative issues are discussed minimally and only when it would seem absolutely necessary to do so. There is also a glossary of Shakespeare's vocabulary to assist the modern reader generally. From personal judgement, though it is only contingent, the text appears conservatively modernized - the `it', for instance, is retained as a possessive adjective whenever it occurs. There is a good but not in any way expansive introduction providing the basics of the historical and critical background to the play. Given its age, this edition would be considered dated in scholarly circle, especially since it collates both the quarto and Folio texts which are now held to be separate variants of the play. It should be argued, however, that familiarizing oneself with the text first is the most important thing. For in the real world of performance directors will use newly edited scripts drawn from whatever has survived for the particular productions without so much as the slightest regard for the raison d'être of the extant variants whilst in the academic world - of habitually reading beyond what was ever written and minutely scrupulously - anything at all could only be made of the several versions after the text has been thoroughly learnt.
The type size is probably just a little too small. But the layout is neat and easy to read. The text is marked wherever an explanatory note accompanies it and the notes are posited just a roll of the eyeballs away from what they explain, saving the reader that disruptive annoyance of having to interrupt the reading only to find there to be no note to compensate for it. Overall it probably falls just short of the Arden series in terms of attractiveness. For the general readers, the students and the stage professionals seeking to conceive a production of "King Lear" that is as empathized, fresh and pertinent to our culture as possible, there is no deficiency to detract from this edition.
14 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
To be honest with you, I never really liked Shakespeare books, I never could understand it. Then I was told I had to buy a King Lear book and study it for my A levels. I searched high and low for a book I thought I could understand and get into, then came this marvellous book. It comes complete with a huge introduction about the play and (lo and behold)it also includes pictures of the marvellous play and how it was performed. It basically, is in script form but for the casual reader it also has definitions on the bottom of the page. A Shakespearean play has never been edited so good! I do understand the play now and thanks to R.A Foakes, I might even get a decent grade. For you people out there who don't understand Shakespeare but are curious about it, I recommend this book as it is a great read. But I warn you now, you might not be able to put it down!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
good
Good simple book that consists of the whole original (slightly edited) play without any annotations. Cheap price tag which is always a bonus! Read more
Published 1 month ago by del
Death, madness and fear- Shakespeare's best
I studied this play years ago for A-level and even flogging its themes and plot to death didn't detract from its brilliance. Read more
Published on 9 Jan 2003 by Alex Magpie
Powerful and Everlasting
The tale of Lear's betrayal by his family and subsequent tragic descent into madness is powerfully gripping. Read more
Published on 29 Aug 2001 by anon
Amazingly Tragic!
I am not an intellectual by no means. I am just a regular young adult studying 'A' Level English Literature, so when told I would be studying King Lear, probably the most dark and... Read more
Published on 20 Jan 2001
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