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].

Descriere de la o altă ediție sau format:
''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.

The general editors of the new series of forty-two volumes -- renowned Shakespeareans Stephen Orgel of Stanford University and A. R. Braunmuller of UCLA -- have assembled a team of six eminent scholars who have, along with the general editors themselves, prepared new introductions and notes to all of Shakespeare's plays and poems. Redesigned in an easy-to-read format that preserves the favorite features of the original -- and including an essay on the theatrical world of Shakespeare, an introduction to the individual play, and a note on the text used -- the new Pelican Shakespeare will be an excellent resource for students, teachers, and theater professionals well into the twenty-first century.

Introduction

• William Shakespeare 1564–1616
  King Lear

King Lear
In Context

• The Shakespearean Theater
• The Swan Theatre
  Titus Andronicus in Performance
  The Plot of an Elizabethan Play
• Early Editions of King Lear
  Source Material
• from Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain (12th century)
  Cap o’ Rushes
  from Anonymous, The True Chronicle History of King Leir and his Three Daughters (1605)
  from Raphael Holinshed, The Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1577, 1587)
  from Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene (1590)
  The Annesley Case
  from Samuel Harsnett, A Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures (1603)
• King Lear on Stage in the Seventeenth Century
• from Richard Johnson, “The Ballad of King Lear and his Three Daughters” (1620)
  from Nahum Tate, The History of King Lear (1681)
  

The text of the play included here, prepared by Craig Walker for The Broadview Anthology of British Literature, has been acclaimed for its outstanding introductory material and annotations, and for its inclusion of parellel text versions of key scenes for which the texts of the Quarto and the Folio versions of the play are substantially different.
Also included in this edition are excerpts from a variety of literary source materials (including Geoffrey on Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae, the anonymous True Chronicle Historie of King Leir, and Samuel Harsnett’s A Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures); material on the historical Annesley case that raised many of the same issues as does Shakespeare’s play; and the happy ending from Nahum Tate’s version of the play, which held the stage for 150 years after its first performance in 1681.

“The Broadview chooses the Folio as the basic text, but, significantly, adds notes throughout that point out the differences appearing in the Quarto version. In addition, in the case of the three scenes in which differences are most pronounced, the anthology prints both Folio and Quarto versions side by side. This method opens up illuminating and exciting possibilities in the classroom.... I regard the unhesitating confrontation with the difficulties of King Lear that is shown by the Broadview editors as a microcosmic illustration of the toughness, determination, and conscientiousness of the editors throughout this entire British literature anthology.” — Robert H. Ray, Baylor University (author of Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare’s King Lear)
“... an exciting achievement ... It sets a new standard by which all other anthologies of British Literature will now have to be measured.” — Graham Hammill, SUNY—Buffalo
“The Broadview Anthology of British Literature is no mere pretender to the throne long held by Norton; it is the new standard.” — Richard Nordquist, Armstrong Atlantic State University