King Lear (Modern Library Classics)
Category: Books,Literature & Fiction,History & Criticism
King Lear (Modern Library Classics) Details
Review Praise for "William Shakespeare: Complete Works" "A remarkable edition, one that makes Shakespeare's extraordinary accomplishment more vivid than ever." -James Shapiro, professor, Columbia University, bestselling author of "A Year in the Life of Shakespeare: 1599" "Two eminent Shakespeareans . . . have applied modern editing techniques and recent scholarship to correct and update the First Folio. . . . Superb.""-The New York Times" "A feast of literary and historical information.""-The Wall Street Journal" "I look forward to using it over many years, enjoying Bate's perceptive comments, trusting Rasmussen's textual scholarship."-Peter Holland, president of the Shakespeare Association of America and editor of "Shakespeare Survey" Read more About the Author William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in April 1564, and his birth is traditionally celebrated on April 23. The facts of his life, known from surviving documents, are sparse. He was one of eight children born to John Shakespeare, a merchant of some standing in his community. William probably went to the King’s New School in Stratford, but he had no university education. In November 1582, at the age of eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, eight years his senior, who was pregnant with their first child, Susanna. She was born on May 26, 1583. Twins, a boy, Hamnet ( who would die at age eleven), and a girl, Judith, were born in 1585. By 1592 Shakespeare had gone to London working as an actor and already known as a playwright. A rival dramatist, Robert Greene, referred to him as “an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers.” Shakespeare became a principal shareholder and playwright of the successful acting troupe, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (later under James I, called the King’s Men). In 1599 the Lord Chamberlain’s Men built and occupied the Globe Theater in Southwark near the Thames River. Here many of Shakespeare’s plays were performed by the most famous actors of his time, including Richard Burbage, Will Kempe, and Robert Armin. In addition to his 37 plays, Shakespeare had a hand in others, including Sir Thomas More and The Two Noble Kinsmen, and he wrote poems, including Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. His 154 sonnets were published, probably without his authorization, in 1609. In 1611 or 1612 he gave up his lodgings in London and devoted more and more time to retirement in Stratford, though he continued writing such plays as The Tempest and Henry VII until about 1613. He died on April 23 1616, and was buried in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford. No collected edition of his plays was published during his life-time, but in 1623 two members of his acting company, John Heminges and Henry Condell, put together the great collection now called the First Folio. Read more See all Editorial Reviews
Reviews
The Modern Library/RSC Shakespeare series IS a very valuable addition. Inexpensive edition of the plays, helpful scene-by-scene summaries of the action, etc. But by far the most valuable part of the half dozen volumes I have studied is the "In Performance" sections. This is what sets this series apart from most others. Here, are performance histories detailing a variety of historic interpretations, interviews with contemporary directors and actors, revealing how they interpreted the text, and turned it into a stage drama.This Lear volume, unfortunately, is marred by the "temporally ethnocentric" and gross overemphasis upon the 1970 Peter Brook production, which perversely saw Lear as a Beckett or Brecht play. Instead of Shakespeare's profound, nuanced picture of a complex world of good and evil, with glimpses of transcendent, redeeming dimensions, we are given--as the proper touchstone to all future presentations--an absurdist, nihilistic vision of life, deliberately removing all affirmation of the worth of life, and of a distinction between good and evil! Hard to believe? Cf. pp. 166 ff. "Productions of Lear would {could?} never be the same after this." ??Even in this flawed volume, there is much to learn. And most of the other volumes I have studied in this series are not marred by such imbalanced "Mod" decadence. I hope the volume on TWELFTH NIGHT, with its gratuitous, stressed homosexualizing of several relationships, is not a sad omen for future volumes in the series.
