{"product_id":"king-lear-9780486280585","title":"King Lear","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst performed about 1805, \u003ci\u003eKing Lear\u003c\/i\u003e is one of the most relentlessly bleak of Shakespeare's tragedies. Probably written between \u003ci\u003eOthello\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eMacbeth\u003c\/i\u003e, when the playwright was at the peak of his tragic power, Lear's themes of filial ingratitude, injustice, and the meaninglessness of life in a seemingly indifferent universe are explored with unsurpassed power and depth.\u003cbr\u003eThe plot concerns a monarch betrayed by his daughters, robbed of his kingdom, descending into madness. Greed, treachery, and cruelty are rife and the denouement of the play is both brutal and heartbreaking. In fact, so troubling is its vision of man's life that, until the mid-19th century, the play was performed most often with a non-Shakespearean happy ending, with Lear back on his throne and Cordelia, the daughter nearest his heart, happily married to the noble Edgar. But there is a dark magnificence to Shakespeare's original vision of the Lear story, and the play is performed today essentially as he wrote it, uncompromised by later \"improvements.\" \u003ci\u003eKing Lear\u003c\/i\u003e is reprinted here from an authoritative British edition, complete with explanatory footnotes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"He was not of an age, but for all time,\" declared Ben Jonson of his contemporary William Shakespeare (1564-1616). Jonson's praise is especially prescient, since at the turn of the 17th century Shakespeare was but one of many popular London playwrights and none of his dramas were printed in his lifetime. The reason so many of his works survive is because two of his actor friends, with the assistance of Jonson, assembled and published the First Folio edition of 1623.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dover Publications","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50620047655186,"sku":"9780486280585","price":4.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_69007c0b-0ada-4480-8a50-a9a299872290.jpg?v=1756201874","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/king-lear-9780486280585","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}