King Lear

The Annotated Shakespeare Series allowsreaders to fully understand and enjoy the rich plays of the world's greatest dramatist

King Lear, one of Shakespeare's darkest and most savage plays, tells the story of the foolish and Job-like Lear, who divides his kingdom, as he does his affections, according to vanity and whim. Lear's failure as a father engulfs himself and his world in turmoil and tragedy.

This fully annotated version of King Lear makesthe play completely accessible to readers in the twenty-first century. It has been carefully assembled with students, teachers, and the general reader in mind. Eminent linguist and translator Burton Raffel offers generous help with vocabulary and usage of Elizabethan English, pronunciation, prosody, and alternative readings of phrases and lines. His on-page annotations provide readers with all the tools they need to comprehend the play and begin to explore its many possible interpretations.

Author: William Shakespeare
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 05/24/2007
Pages: 215
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.45lbs
Size: 7.70h x 5.00w x 0.80d
ISBN13: 9780300122008
ISBN10: 0300122004
BISAC Categories:
- Drama | Shakespeare

About the Author
Burton Raffel is Distinguished Professor of Arts and Humanities Emeritus and professor of English emeritus, University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The most recent of his many publications is Selected Poems by Nicolas Boileau, published by Yale University Press. He lives in Lafayette. Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities at Yale University, is the author of many books, including The Western Canon, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, and Jesus and Yahweh: The Names Divine.