King LearRandom House Publishing Group, 2013 M06 12 - 352 pages A king foolishly divides his kingdom between his scheming two oldest daughters and estranges himself from the daughter who loves him. So begins this profoundly moving and disturbing tragedy that, perhaps more than any other work in literature, challenges the notion of a coherent and just universe. The king and others pay dearly for their shortcomings–as madness, murder, and the anguish of insight and forgiveness that arrive too late combine to make this an all-embracing tragedy of evil and suffering. Each Edition Includes: • Comprehensive explanatory notes • Vivid introductions and the most up-to-date scholarship • Clear, modernized spelling and punctuation, enabling contemporary readers to understand the Elizabethan English • Completely updated, detailed bibliographies and performance histories • An interpretive essay on film adaptations of the play, along with an extensive filmography |
From inside the book
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Page v
... suffering. In no other Shakespearean play does injustice appear to triumph so ferociously, for so long, and with such impunity. Will the heavens countenance this reign of injustice on earth? Retribution is late in coming and is not ...
... suffering. In no other Shakespearean play does injustice appear to triumph so ferociously, for so long, and with such impunity. Will the heavens countenance this reign of injustice on earth? Retribution is late in coming and is not ...
Page viii
... suffering, love, and hatred. The characters pull us two ways at once; we regard them as types with universalized characteristics—a king and father, his cruel daughters, his loving daughter, and the like—and yet we scrutinize them for ...
... suffering, love, and hatred. The characters pull us two ways at once; we regard them as types with universalized characteristics—a king and father, his cruel daughters, his loving daughter, and the like—and yet we scrutinize them for ...
Page xi
... one, but, since it brings self-discovery, it is not without its compensations. Indeed, a central paradox of the play is that by no other ('D m m - - way could Lear have learned what human suffering and need. IN'l'RODUC'l'lON xiii.
... one, but, since it brings self-discovery, it is not without its compensations. Indeed, a central paradox of the play is that by no other ('D m m - - way could Lear have learned what human suffering and need. IN'l'RODUC'l'lON xiii.
Page xii
... suffering and need are all about. Lear's Fool is instrumental in elucidating this paradox. The Fool offers Lear ... suffer than to win on the cynical world's terms. The greatest fools truly are those who prosper through cruelty and ...
... suffering and need are all about. Lear's Fool is instrumental in elucidating this paradox. The Fool offers Lear ... suffer than to win on the cynical world's terms. The greatest fools truly are those who prosper through cruelty and ...
Page xiii
... suffering to attain it: “The art of our necessities is strange, / And can make vile things precious" (lines 70-1). Misery teaches Lear things he never could know as king about other “Poor naked wretches" who “bide the pelting of this ...
... suffering to attain it: “The art of our necessities is strange, / And can make vile things precious" (lines 70-1). Misery teaches Lear things he never could know as king about other “Poor naked wretches" who “bide the pelting of this ...
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Common terms and phrases
Alack ALBANY bastard blind brother Burgundy Charles Dickens Child Rowland Cordelia CORNWALL D. H. Lawrence daughters dear death disguised doth Dover Duke Duke of Cornwall Edith Wharton Edmund Enter Edgar Enter Lear Exeunt Exit eyes father fear film flatter folio follow FOOL fortune France Fyodor Dostoevsky GENTLEMAN give Gloucester's gods GONERIL Goneril and Regan grace hast hath hear heart heavens honor horse i'th Jane Austen justice KENT King Lear kingdom knave Lear's Leir Leonatus letter lord madam master means MESSENGER nature never night noble nuncle Perillus pity play play's Plexirtus poor pray princes quarto RAGAN REGAN royal scene servants Shakespeare sister Skalliger speak stage stand storm Stratford-upon-Avon suffering sword Telenor tell theater thee There's thine thou art traitor trumpet unto villain wicked sisters William Shakespeare wretched