King Lear [简装] 0553212974

John Dover Wilson's New Shakespeare, published between 1921 and 1966, became the classic Cambridge edition of Shakespeare's plays and poems until the 1980s. The series, long since out-of-print, is now reissued. Each work contains a lengthy and lively introduction, main text, and substantial notes and glossary.--This text refers to the Paperback edition. .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--This text refers to the Paperback edition. 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"

"From the Trade Paperback edition."

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 LordChamberlain’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.

出版社	Bantam Doubleday Dell
作者	威廉?莎士比亚 (William Shakespeare)