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King Lear

A Norton Critical Edition
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Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare exploring themes of power, family betrayal, madness, and redemption. It follows the ageing King Lear who divides his kingdom among his daughters based on their flattery, leading to tragic consequences.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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This edition is ideal for students, scholars, and readers interested in the historical sources and critical interpretations of King Lear. It offers valuable context for understanding Shakespeare’s creative process and the play’s critical legacy.

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This Norton Critical Edition is based on the Folio text of King Lear (carefully corrected prior to its printing in 1623). The editor has interpolated the best-known and most-often discussed passages from Quarto I (including the β€œmock-trial” scene) as is fully explained in both β€œA Note on the Text” and the annotations that accompany the play.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

"Sources" helps readers navigate King Lear's rich history and includes the nine essential primary sources from which Shakespeare borrowed significantly in creating his play, along with two additional likely sources.

"Criticism" provides thirteen major critical interpretations and three provocative adaptations and responses to King Lear. Critical interpretation is provided by Samuel Johnson, Charles Lamb, Peter Brook, Michael Warren, Lynda E. Boose, Janet Adelman, and R. A. Foakes, among others. The adaptations and responses are by Nahum Tate, John Keats, and Edward Bond.

A Selected Bibliography is also included.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780393926644

Publisher: WW Norton & Co

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 10 December 2007

Country: United States

Imprint: WW Norton & Co

Edition: Critical edition

Contributors:

  • Edited by Grace Ioppolo

Audience: Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 18.0mm

Width: 130.0mm

Height: 216.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 296

About the Author

Grace Ioppolo is the founder and director of the Henslowe-Alleyn Digitisation Project and is Professor of Shakespearean and Early Modern Drama in the Department of English and American Literature at the University of Reading, England. She is the author of Dramatists and Their Manuscripts in the Age of Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton, and Heywood: Authorship, Authority, and the Playhouse (2006) and Revising Shakespeare (1991). She has edited Shakespeare’s King Lear for Norton and has published widely on textual transmission, the history of the book and literary and historical manuscripts, most recently as the co-editor of Elizabeth I and the Culture of Writing (2007). She is the General Editor of The Collected Works of Thomas Heywood, forthcoming 2012–15.

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