King Lear

William Shakespeare (1564¿1616) is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language. His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. // Richard Appignanesi graduated with a doctorate in classical art history. He was a founder and co-director of the Writers & Readers Publishing Cooperative and Icon Books, where he originated the internationally acclaimed Introducing series. His own best-selling titles written for that series include Freud, Postmodernism and Existentialism. He is the author of the fiction trilogy Italia Perversa (Stalin's Orphans, The Mosque and Destroying America) and the novel Yukio Mishima's Report to the Emperor. He has served as a curator of art exhibitions, university lecturer and conference organiser for the British Council. He is currently associate editor of the art and culture journal Third Text and reviews editor of the policy and futures studies journal Futures. // ILYA¿s work has been published by Marvel, DC and Dark Horse in the USA, Kodansha in Japan, and numerous independent companies worldwide. His previous books include the award-winning graphic novel series The End of the Century Club, It¿s Dark in London (for SelfMadeHero), and the kitchen sink drama Skidmarks. His Illustration clients include the BBC, the Royal Academy of Arts, The Times and the Guardian newspapers, and most recently East End Life, for whom he crafts a regular strip. ILYA edits the Mammoth Book of Best New Manga series. His first and most recent publication is a novel, The Clay Dreaming [Myriad Editions, 2011].

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''As flies to th' wanton boys are we to th' gods:They bite us for their sport.'Set in the recesses of British antiquity, King Lear broods on gift-giving, gratitude, service and love; the bonds that sustain human life within families, communities and the state. Concerned with what remains and what is possible when these bonds crack, cool off or come apart, the tragedy forces repeated confrontations with abysmal cruelty, which it yokes together with instances of compassion that seem chillingly frail by comparison. By the end of the twentieth century, Lear took its place not only as Shakespeare's greatest work, but also his best play for our times, fitting then, in its anguish and denials of consolation, as it is now. Its wild mixtures of levity and terror, kindness and malevolence, what came to be called its absurdity, was prized as especially modern.The New Oxford Shakespeare offers authoritative editions of Shakespeare's works with introductory materials designed to encourage new interpretations of the plays and poems. Using the text from the landmark The New Oxford Shakespeare Complete Works: Modern Critical Edition, these volumes offer readers the latest thinking on the authentic texts (collated from all surviving original versions of Shakespeare's work) alongside innovative introductions from leading scholars. The texts are accompanied by a comprehensive set of critical apparatus to give readers the best resources to help understand and enjoy Shakespeare's work.ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Introduction; Photo gallery; List of characters; Act 1; Act 2; Act 3; Act 4; Act 5; Perspectives and themes; The contexts of King Lear; Characters; The language of King Lear; Critics' forum; The truth and reconciliation commission; King Lear in performance; Writing about Shakespeare; Writing about King Lear; The Quarto and Folio editions; Timeline; Acknowledgements.

'Lear is trapped into a position of anger, having embarked on a game of vanity with his daughters: who loves me most?'
'Of all the Shakespeare roles, King Lear is the actor's Everest... To play this you need to have lived long enough to know or see suffering, madness, and human folly.'
'King Lear is perhaps the greatest of all Shakespeare's dramas, but it is so harrowing, so despairing, so graphic in its cruelty, that it is also a test of endurance.'
'If Shakespeare's plays were mountains, King Lear would be the entire Himalayas.'
'The play - arguably the Bard's greatest'
''Lear' is an undeniably majestic work;