King Lear (12)

Ranks 12th on The Fictional 100

The following books and film will introduce you to King Lear, who said these words in Shakespeare's King Lear, Act IV, scene vi. To order a book or film, or for more information, follow the title links to Amazon.com, or return home to browse other characters.

• Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of King Lear (New Folger Shakespeare Library). New York: Washington Square Press, 1993.
  • Authoritative, paperback text with helpful notes on facing pages.
    
• King Lear (1984) [DVD]. Starring Laurence Olivier, Diana Rigg. Kultur, 2000.
  • Devotees of Shakespeare and Lear are fortunate that Laurence Olivier lived long enough to put this performance on film. This Emmy-winning production will sear the image of the raging and emotionally blind king and father into memory. With only the barest stage sets, Olivier shows us the wind-blown heath of the mind. (I hope I live long enough to see what Kenneth Branagh does with the role someday.)
• Hazlitt, William. Characters of Shakespeare's Plays (Cambridge Library Collection - Literary Studies) (J. H. Lobban, Ed). Cambridge University Press, 2009.
  • First appearing in 1817, these essays are classic analyses of Shakespeare's major characters. He pronounced Lear "the best of all Shakespeare's plays." (See also A. C. Bradley's Shakespearean Tragedy under Othello.)
    
• Bloom, Harold (Ed.). William Shakespeare's King Lear (Modern Critical Interpretations). Chelsea House, 1987.
  • Critical extracts and essays offer the best of modern Lear criticism.
    
• Kishi, T., Pringle, R., and Wells, S. (Eds.). Shakespeare and Cultural Traditions. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1994.
  • Adaptations of Shakespeare's plays continue to surface in various forms (e.g., opera, film, literature) around the world.
    
• Parsons, K. and Mason, P. (Eds.). Shakespeare in Performance. London: Salamander Books; Random House, 1995.
  • Lavishly illustrated performance history of how, when, and who in performance of the Bard. Delightful, perplexing tidbits such as the appalling fact that Shakespeare's Lear was supplanted on the stage for 150 years by an inferior adaptation by Nahum Tate (see next ref.).
    
• Tate, Nahum. The History of King Lear (J. Black, Ed.). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1975.
  • Samuel Johnson, wise in most other matters, endorsed Tate's 1681 revision, which provided King Lear with a mawkish happy ending in which Cordelia and Edgar marry and rule together, while Lear enjoys a contented retirement!

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