Product Description

Like every other play in the Cambridge School Shakespeare series, King Lear has been specially prepared to help all students in schools and colleges. This version of King Lear aims to be different from other editions of the play. It invites you to bring the play to life in your classroom through enjoyable activities that will help increase your understanding. You are encourage to make up your own mind about the play, rather than have someone else's interpretation handed down to you. Whatever you do, remember that Shakespeare wrote his plays to be acted, watched and enjoyed.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9525 in Books
• Published on: 1996-08-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

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

From the Author
Has the world understood it?
No!

Customer Reviews

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. Taking away its dubious misogynies (which, of course, are a sign of the time it was written) we are left with a work of brilliance.
The pain Lear goes through to be betrayed by two of his daughters after his own lack of foresight is heartbreaking- as is the climax. This is a truly dark and disturbing work but never was Shakespeare so powerful and provocative in his treatment of realtionships and human evil.
Read it, watch it or act it- and shudder

A great read... and very educational too!
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!

Powerful and Everlasting
The tale of Lear's betrayal by his family and subsequent tragic descent into madness is powerfully gripping. Shakespeare keeps the plot simple, but ensures that the undertones are remarkably complex. In Lear's most poignant speech, when he begins the journey to insanity, he demands that we "allow not nature more than nature needs" and forewarns that his heart will "break into a hundred thousand flaws". These predictions unfold in vivid and dramatic style throughout a play laced with reference to nature's omnipotence. The ending shatters your heart.