King Lear (The Pelican Shakespeare)

by William Shakespeare, Stephen Orgel

King Lear (The Pelican Shakespeare)

book data

9549 ratings, 3.99 average rating, 314 reviews (more data...)

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published

February 1st 2000 (first published 1608) by Penguin Classics

binding

Paperback, 320 pages

isbn

0140714901 (isbn13: 9780140714906)

description

With new editors who have incorporated the most up-to-date scholarship, this revised Pelican Shakespeare series will be the premiere choice for studen...more

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All ratings | 5 stars (3346) | 4 stars (2960) | 3 stars (2317) | 2 stars (639) | 1 star (136) | avg 3.99

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Ginnie

Ginnie rated it:

(review of isbn 1903436591)

08/17/08

bookshelves: classics, literature, plays

Shakespeare's King Lear is magnificent, appalling, soaring, banal, cruel, tender, funny and complex; the virtuous are punished, justice is rarely served (and lawyers are unloved). Its scope is so demanding that it's virtually impossible to stage and its end is simply shattering — in other words, it's very much like life. Lear is truly a play that pushes performance and language to its absolute limits.

But Lear's beauty remains — unforgettable, terrible, heart-shocking. Think of everything...more

Like this review? yes (4 people liked it)

3 comments

rachel

rachel rated it:

(review of isbn 074348276X)

08/12/07

bookshelves: recommended

Read in February, 1999

recommended to rachel by: shakespeare goal
recommends it for: shakespeare fans

when my a.p. english teacher, mr. anderson, asked me if i had read "king lear", i replied something like "yeah, and i can't believe i have to read that piece of trash again." i think it was the one time he was disappointed in me... well, after having read it the second time for mr. anderson and again in college, i have finally come to appreciate the work that is "king lear"...and i now wonder why i had a problem with it in the first place. filled with political a...more

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Amelia

Amelia rated it:

(review of isbn 074348276X)

05/26/08

bookshelves: classics, plays

Read in May, 2008

Spoiler I suppose...

Well, I expected to hate it...being one of the tragedies, I didn't. I actually really loved it. (Thank you Comrade D!)Other than Cordelia, I was comletely fine with everyone who died. I did have to laugh that there were only three main characters alive at the end though!

I found one aspect rather annoyingly unrealistic, the fact that Lear seemed to be homeless without the favor of at least one of his two elder daughters. Kings have many a castle...you would think t...more

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11 comments

Raymond

Raymond rated it:

(review of isbn 074348276X)

10/23/08

King Lear is a fascinating piece of writing with epic scenes that leave the reader wanting more. Putting this novel down is the hardest thing one can do.This book really emphasizes the spoils and paranoia of being king.The Shakespearian language was a great influence on the dramatic scenes of the novel.

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

1 comment

Melissa

Melissa rated it:

(review of isbn 074348276X)

08/04/08

bookshelves: master-s-exam

Read in January, 2008

I think this was my second time reading Shakespeare's King Lear. When I started it, I couldn't decide if I had read it one time already, or three, which seems like a pretty weird mix-up. I think it was one. Though I saw it in Stratford, performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company, which was an inspiring and amazing production.

I think the oft-repeated maxim that Shakespeare's plays are best seen and not read is most true for his sex jokes and for King Lear. Because, in seein...more

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Briynne

Briynne rated it:

(review of isbn 074348276X)

12/12/07

I love the three daughters of King Lear, and I love this play. The irony, and ultimate tragedy, of this play is that the King cannot spot love when he sees it. He falls for the false affection and fawning of his mercenary elder daughters Goneril and Regan, and misses the quiet, honest love and duty of his youngest, Cordelia. The sisters are all married to powerful men; Goneril and Regan to dukes eager to sieze control of the kingdom Lear divides between them, and Cordelia to the French king w...more

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Elizabeth

Elizabeth rated it:

(review of isbn 1579126170)

05/19/08

Read in May, 2008

recommended to Elizabeth by: Sara

the byline for these editions are "the page becomes the stage." King Lear has never been numbered among my favorites; I can never remember the plot; but how tremendously these quirky, disturbing illustrations guided me through the text this time. All the references to sight and blindness, nature and kingship, kept leaping out with great clarity. I also found David Gibson's brief introduction to the play to be very useful and enlightening. I'm really burning to see this as an actual...more

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Paul

Paul rated it:

(review of isbn 074348276X)

01/17/08

My all-time favorite Shakespeare play. Had a great time teaching it last year, and it's a real testament to the play's universal appeal that a bunch of 17 year olds can empathize so strongly with the aged Lear. I cannot read the last scene without crying, no matter where I am. I'm getting a little misty eyed just thinking about it. "thou'lt come again never never never...". Just heartbreaking and totally unredemptive at the end as well. Also the best and strongest of all the subpl...more

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Martin

Martin rated it:

01/08/08

Read in September, 1993

recommends it for: Shakespeare Lovers, Madmen, Kings

Shakes isn't for everyone. Old English doesn't always translate into our bastardize version of it in the modern day which tends to leave most feeling they are missing something anytime they read one of Will's books.

Like many of his works lots of people die though this story lacks the name recogonition but pulls just as much depravity found in Hamlet. By far my favorite of his stories because of one line of text:

'Tis the times plague when madmen lead the blind.'

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Preston

Preston rated it:

(review of isbn 074348276X)

11/19/08

bookshelves: ap-english-quarter-i

Read in November, 2008

Text to self:
Though it is difficulto find comparisons in my life to the royal scope of King Lear, I will say I admire, to a degree, the character of Edmund. Though he is limited by the situation of his birth, he none the less strives to overcome it by any means necessary. His path is wrought with peril, but I cannot help but wish to carry a portion of his boldness.

Text to text:
The conversation of Act I, Scene IV with King Lear, the Fool, and the disguised Kent reminds me greatly of co...more

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M.C.

M.C. rated it:

(review of isbn 074348276X)

09/07/08

bookshelves: 2008---2009

In his more renowned tragedy "King Lear", William Shakespeare weaves a tale of royal treachery and ignorance.

Set in late Medieval England, the play unveils with a meeting between British monarch King Lear and his three daughters. In his attempt to retreat from royal power, King Lear decides to cede to the daughter who best professes her love to him his wealth. Though by her unyielding conscience, Cordelia, the daughter whom Lear favored most, refuses to profess her love in elegant...more

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Atomicplayboy

Atomicplayboy rated it:

(review of isbn 074348276X)

09/24/08

Read in September, 2008

Widely considered one of his most difficult works (according to the introduction, anyway), King Lear is not lacking in symbolism and hidden meaning. Taken at face value, however, it is a compelling, tragic, and, somehow, uplifting play. It is both optimistic and pessimistic at the same time, a commentary on the human condition. Evil is vanquished while the good still suffers injustice from punishment too severe to fit their crimes.

King Lear follows the story of the infamous Lear, King of Bri...more

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Darcy

Darcy rated it:

(review of isbn 074348276X)

08/18/08

bookshelves: 2008, ap-books

Read in August, 2008

recommended to Darcy by: AP Literature

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Henry

Henry rated it:

(review of isbn 017443460X)

07/21/08

Read in July, 2008

recommends it for: Everyone

There is no question that Shakespeare can be hard to read. There is equally no question that it is worth the effort.

King Lear is probably one of Shakespeare's harder plays and I think that it is probably a good idea to know the plot before actually reading it. It's pretty easy to find a brief synopsis that will let you follow the play much more easily. It's also probably a good idea, if you are reading this or any of Shakespeare's plays for the first time, to find a good annotated ve...more There is no question that Shakespeare can be hard to read. There is equally no question that it is worth the effort.

King Lear is probably one of Shakespeare's harder plays and I think that it is probably a good idea to know the plot before actually reading it. It's pretty easy to find a brief synopsis that will let you follow the play much more easily. It's also probably a good idea, if you are reading this or any of Shakespeare's plays for the first time, to find a good annotated version. I don't have much with which to compare it but I think The Arden Shakespeare is quite good. Their edition of King Lear is edited by R. A. Foakes, who seems to have done a magnificent job. It certainly helped me. There are a lot of words and phrases that we simply don't use and having them explained it pretty useful.

As for King Lear itself, I liked it. There's no question that it's one of the greats. It's a tragedy, of course, and we don't really go for tragedy these days. A pity, really. Life can be tragic and we can learn a lot from them. King Lear has fewer familiar quotations than you will find in other plays, such as Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, or Hamlet. I would say I only really recognized one.

How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child.  Away, Away!
1.4.280-1

Apparently, a new adaptation of King Lear is in the works. Sir Anthony Hopkins is to be cast in the role of King Lear, while Keira Knightley, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Naomi Watts are cast as Cordelia, Regan, and Goneril. We'll have to wait and see if it was worth the effort. As I'm not a big fan of Keira Knightley, I have my doubts but perhaps that's colored by her part in the pirate movies. I'm afraid she's going to “bring too much to the part” as it were. It really all depends on the director, I suspect. I'll be a bit surprised if they don't spend as much time on battle scenes as they do on dialog, although Shakespeare pretty much let them happen off stage. That's not the way it's done in movies these days.

So, learn the story and then read King Lear, slowly and thoroughly. Highly recommended.
...less

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Duluoz

Duluoz rated it:

07/05/08

bookshelves: drama

I just finished rereading LEAR in preparation for my fall Shakespeare course. As I was reading, I was constantly reminded of Dickens' BLEAK HOUSE in the ways in which both texts concern the written texts, speech, and the establishment of power. I think that Derrida's famous essay on Plato's PHAEDRUS will come in handy in introducing the tension between speech and writing in the play. This essay will make it easy for us to address such issues as phallocentrism, logocentrism, and deconstruction.
...more

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2 comments

Jennyanydots

Jennyanydots rated it:

(review of isbn 0140714766)

06/22/08

Read in June, 2008

recommends it for: bardolaters everywhere!

the first time i saw this play, i almost died. it was painful, it was wrenching, i was overwhelmed in the worst possible way. see this play before reading it. see it on stage if possible. you need to hear where the shouts, the smiles, the sighs and cruel laughs resonate to appreciate this play. it reels with emotion. just reading words kills it; you need to read the emotion. hear the voices crack.

needless to say, this isn't light stuff; it's like the brahms of shakespeare. the emotions are s...more

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Andrew

Andrew rated it:

(review of isbn 0140714766)

05/01/08

bookshelves: completed

Read in May, 2008

As much as I'd like to say that this play was great and talk about the amazing story and characters, I just can't do it. To me, "King Lear" fell flat where other Shakespeare plays exploded.

When it comes to the end (which, if you don't want to know how it ends you'd better stop reading here), I was not surprised to find that most of the major characters are killed. What I did find surprising was that I didn't necessarily feel anything one way or another. I didn't feel any pity fo...more As much as I'd like to say that this play was great and talk about the amazing story and characters, I just can't do it. To me, "King Lear" fell flat where other Shakespeare plays exploded.

When it comes to the end (which, if you don't want to know how it ends you'd better stop reading here), I was not surprised to find that most of the major characters are killed. What I did find surprising was that I didn't necessarily feel anything one way or another. I didn't feel any pity for the maddened king, nor any sorrow at the death of his noble daughter. Meanwhile, there is no rejoicing that the evil sisters have killed each other or that the con-man has been revealed and put to death.

Whereas in "Hamlet" and "Macbeth" there is a sense of divine justice and balance at the end, "King Lear" provides no such satisfaction. Macbeth is overthrown and the true king is restored. In "King Lear," though, the balance of power cannot be restored (because Lear and his children are all dead!), so the thrown is handed to the nearest nobleman (literally!). Sure, Hamlet is killed, but he has at least won the duel and avenged his father's murder. But King Lear's army loses the last epic battle and his noble daughter fails to acheive her goal.

If anything, "King Lear" may be the closest thing to a noir style story that Shakespeare wrote. The morality is generally ambiguous. The "good" king is actually driven to insanity. His "loyal" followers are forced into acts of deception without revealing themselves to their master. Ultimately, we're left wondering what to feel. Bad for Lear and Cordelia's deaths? Happy that Edmund and the two daughters do not rise to power? Like a hardboiled detective novel, everybody had their own selfish motives and, ultimately, nobody gets what they want and the reader is left shaking his head at the senseless violence and cruelty of the story.

I've been told two things that assuage my disappointment with the story. First - that "King Lear" is much more powerful when watched and loses its edge when read. Second - that it makes much more sense after the age of forty. As for the first point - I can understand that perhaps watching Lear going insane would evoke more pity than just reading his mad ramblings, and so I'll definitely go see it next time it is put on near here. As for the second point - I guess I'll just have to wait and see....less

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Russell

Russell rated it:

(review of isbn 074348276X)

01/13/08

Read in January, 2007

I just finished King Lear this morning and was not too surprised at the sad ending, though I was taken back a bit by how the ending occurred and who was affected. This is the first Shakespeare I've read in at least 11-12 years and so it took me a while to become accustomed to reading dialog and learning/recognizing characters. I even had to re-read the starting another time so that I better understood the root of the plot. That being said, it took me several days to really get into the story. I ...more

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Núria

Núria rated it:

(review of isbn 074348276X)

12/26/07

bookshelves: 2007, 5-favoritos, edad-moderna, literatura-en-ingles, mios, read-more-than-once, teatro

No me pude resistir a comprarme este libro. Prácticamente todo el Shakespeare que me lo he leído, me lo he leído gracias a la biblioteca, porque tienen casi toda la colección de esa edición clásica de las obras completas de Shakespeare en catalán, esa que tiene tapa dura de color granate y con las letras de color dorado y las hojas algo amarillentas ya de fábrica, algo que la convierte en un pequeño tesoro que da gusto acariciar y que queda muy bien puesto en una estantería. Es una edi...more No me pude resistir a comprarme este libro. Prácticamente todo el Shakespeare que me lo he leído, me lo he leído gracias a la biblioteca, porque tienen casi toda la colección de esa edición clásica de las obras completas de Shakespeare en catalán, esa que tiene tapa dura de color granate y con las letras de color dorado y las hojas algo amarillentas ya de fábrica, algo que la convierte en un pequeño tesoro que da gusto acariciar y que queda muy bien puesto en una estantería. Es una edición que hoy en día cuesta horrores de encontrar. Así que cuando entré en la librería y vi ese granate inconfundible, me fui directa al libro y supe que me lo iba a comprar, antes ya de saber qué obra de Shakespeare era. Resultó ser 'El rey Lear'. Hubiera preferido que fuera el 'Ricardo III', pero peor hubiera sido que fuera el Hamlet o el Romeo y Julieta, porque son los dos Shakespeare que poseo físicamente y sería muy absurdo (incluso para mí) comprarme una segunda edición de un libro que ya tengo, por más mona que sea la edición. Y aún peor hubiera sido que fuera una obra que contuviera a Enrique V, porque yo odio al pijo mimado y chaquetero de Enrique V con todas mis fuerzas.

Pero 'El rey Lear' está muy bien, porque debe ser de las obras de Shakespeare que tienen una estructura más perfecta, la obra en que la trama secundaria está mejor integrada en la trama principal, porque las dos hablan del mismo tema: de hijos que quieren destronar a sus padres cuando ya son viejos. Y gracias a los paralelismos y las diferencias entre estas dos tramas que hablan de la misma resulta que 'El rey Lear' es una de las obras más ricas de Shakespeare. También es una de las que tienen más fuerza. Las escenas de locura/sufrimiento de Lear son impresionantes. Lear no es que me caiga muy bien, es un viejo cascarrabias narcisista y pocas luces y muy quejica, pero sufre una evolución magnífica. Gracias al sufrimiento se vuelve una persona mejor, más noble. Y es cuando se vuelve loco que está más cuerdo, más lúcido.

Los otros personajes secundarios no tienen tanta profundidad, o bien son buenos-buenos o malos-malos. De los malos-malos me fascina Edmund. Siempre ha sido uno de mis villanos shakespearianos favoritos, es tan encantadoramente manipulador, tan retorcidamente encantador, tan listo y tan malo, por más que su redención final siempre me mosquea un poquito. Recuerdo que la primera vez que lo leí Edgar, el hermano de Edmund, me pareció un ñoño. Ahora me ha caído mucho mejor. Me ha gustado su nobleza, cómo acepta su destino, cómo se hace pasar por loco y cómo quiere a su padre (será que me estoy volviendo yo ñoña). Pero lo mejor del Rey Lear es el final, nada happy-ending. Es una obra muy valiente, porque todo parece que apunta hacia un buen final, pero todo se trunca de la forma más tonta, por mala suerte y nos deja altamente frustrados. Pero es un final tan realista, porque a todas horas pasan cosas malas sin que tengan ninguna explicación dentro de una supuesta lógica narrativa.
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Karl Steel

Karl rated it:

(review of isbn 074348276X)

09/30/07

bookshelves: books_i_taught, postmedieval_fiction

Read in September, 2007

Teaching it for the second time. The Folger edition is okay, but it badly needs to be updated; and the illustrations in the facing page are, to my mind, badly chosen, unless they're meant only to promote the grandeur of the Folger library. I think they would have done much better to provide photos of scenes taken from various productions/films/adaptations of Lear; no doubt the students would pay more attention to such things, to say nothing of nonexpert instructors like me.

Oh, the play: cert...more

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