King Lear (Signet Classics)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0451526937 ISBN 13: 9780451526939

Publisher: Signet, 1998

The Signet Classics edition of one of William Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies.

Full of cruelty and betrayal, King Lear is the timeless and timely story of a kingdom held in the thrall of an aging ruler’s descent into madness. Desperate for praise, he banishes those who would guide him with honesty and surrounds himself with sycophants—an action which leads to his ultimately tragic downfall...

This revised Signet Classics edition includes unique features such as:

· An overview of Shakespeare's life, world, and theater
· A special introduction to the play by the editor, Russell Fraser
· Selections from Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia, and The True Chronicle History of King Lear, the sources from which Shakespeare derived King Lear
· Dramatic criticism from Samuel Johnson, A. C. Bradley, John Russell Brown, and others
· A comprehensive stage and screen history of notable actors, directors, and productions
· Text, notes, and commentaries printed in the clearest, most readable text
· And more...

Book Description:

John Dover Wilson's New Shakespeare, published between 1921 and 1966, became the classic Cambridge edition of Shakespeare's plays and poems until the 1980s. The series, long since out-of-print, is now reissued. Each work contains a lengthy and lively introduction, main text, and substantial notes and glossary.

From the Publisher:

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.