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King Lear
King Lear
King Lear
Audiobook (abridged)3 hours

King Lear

Written by William Shakespeare

Narrated by Paul Scofield and Full Cast

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

4.5/5

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About this audiobook

I am a man more sinned against than sinning.

A Shakespeare Society Production.

The complete play in five acts.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherCaedmon
Release dateDec 27, 2003
ISBN9780060743284
Author

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest playwright the world has seen. He produced an astonishing amount of work; 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and 5 poems. He died on 23rd April 1616, aged 52, and was buried in the Holy Trinity Church, Stratford.

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Reviews for King Lear

Rating: 4.354838709677419 out of 5 stars
4.5/5

62 ratings47 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Thoughts on the play: -A classic tragedy in which almost everyone dies at the end. -I really didn't have much sympathy for Lear. He acted incredibly foolishly, not just once in turning his back on Cordelia, but many times. -At first, Goneral seemed to be acting reasonably. If Lear had restrained his knights, much of the tragedy would have been lessened. (This was one of the foolish actions of Lear's I mentioned above.) However, as the plot moves on, she is revealed as being more and more terrible. -Edmund struck me as the villain, and he also acted as a catalyst for villainy. So I found the scene at near the end after he & Edgar had dueled a bit hard to believe - after everything, Edgar just forgives him!?! -I was shocked when Cornwall plucks out Gloucester's eyes. I didn't know that was going to happen! Gloucester struck me as the true tragic hero, rather than Lear. Both of them cast off deserving children, but Gloucester realized his error and suffered for it. It wasn't clear to me that Lear recognized his own faults the way Gloucester did.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I had never read this play before the afore-mentioned Shakespeare course and I was absolutely blown away by it. Hamlet remains my favorite Shakespeare play (and, basically, favorite play ever) but King Lear is right behind it. Again, this was helped by seeing a great production in London (at the Young Vic). Still, the play itself is so beautiful and tragic. I love Cordelia’s speech and character, and Lear himself is so tragically flawed.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Probably the best of Shakespeare's works thematically, but not the easiest to follow. The sub-plots, the various intrigues, makes for a very convoluted plot. Some great roles though -- Lear, Edgar playing a madman, the Fool, the evil Edmund and the scheming daughters ... some serious scene-stealing material.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Its Shakespeare! What more do you want me to say. He's wonderful!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Took me awhile to read this book due to life taking over my reading time. I also just wasn't interested in reading the play for awhile. The Tragedy of King Lear is a well written play by William Shakespeare. I have only read one other work by Shakespeare and that is Romeo and Juliet. I enjoyed the story of King Lear, I just wish I had a better understanding of his English writing to fully understand Shakespeare's works.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A most excellent audioversion of Shakespeare's play! This is the one you want to go with.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Not my cup of tea, but it was nice to read it because I haven't before.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Read this simply because it's one of Shakespeare's best plays. There is so much substance in this tragedy that it almost becomes overwhelming. If you want dark and depressing, this is for you!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    King Lear decides to divide his kingdom between his three daughters based on how clearly they express their love for him with words and flattery. Cordelia, who loves him best, refuses to participate in the charade, because her actions over the years should be testament enough. Because of this Lear gives his other two selfish daughters his entire kingdom. They quickly strip him of power and he realizes his mistake, but it's too late to avoid the horrible consequences. This is a tragedy in every possibly way. The characters make horrible decisions, which lead to their inevitable downfall. The thing I found fascinating about this play is the family dynamics. Relationships between a father and his daughters, sisters, brothers, a father and his sons; these are the real heartbeat of the story. More than Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet or Othello, King Lear dives deep into families and wonders why we do these things to the people we're suppose to love.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Shakespeare but I have not read it in a long time and I do not think that I have ever seen it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The proud King Lear disowns his most dutiful daughter and is consequently betrayed by his other two. A bastard son betrays both his brother and father out of jealousy and malice. I think it is the saddest of his tragedies, and it moves very quickly to me (though not as quickly as Macbeth). It is also really one of the most profound expressions of human suffering ever written in the English language. The play sees deeply into the soul, and so I would often linger a bit on a line or speech with a quiet awe. The actions pierce its characters with a sad, penetrating irony. The eyes will eventually see in their blindness. The heart bleeds and the storm rages. It is depressing, yes. But in all, as depraved as its villains are, I also read in King Lear what is very beautiful about humanity and kinship, however frail it may appear teetering on the edge of a cliff: compassion, loyalty, charity, and mercy.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Fourth book of the readathon. Read in snatches during a car journey and between acts in a concert! Which is probably not the best way to experience Shakespeare, laying aside the issue that I think the best way to experience it is by watching it, but I enjoyed it. I've always rather liked Cordelia, with her steadfast truthfulness, and I do remember some very vivid mental images regarding eyes being put out when, at the age of nine, I read a children's version of the story.

    And of course, Shakespeare's use of language, his sense of timing, his grasp of what will look good on stage -- that's as expected: he was a master.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I don’t really know what to say about King Lear, or anything by Shakespeare, really. A summary would be redundant and out of place. So would gushing about the stunning beauty of the poetry, or how this is some of the greatest writing in the history of the English language, or any language.Only one thing comes to mind when I think of Shakespeare’s greatest plays. Think what you will of Harold Bloom (and there are certainly many opinions about him), I always think, more than anything else, of the title of his book of essays on the plays: “Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human.” Is the title a typically hyperbolic publishing stunt? The more I read and re-read the plays, the less I’m starting to think so. Words simply fail me. They really do. The wonderful things about Modern Library/RSC edition are the introduction, critically informed notes on the text, folio notes, and a sizeable section on historically important performances of “King Lear.” These do a superb job of contextualizing the play, especially in how it performed on stage.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    One of my favorite Shakespeare plays, though it had been a long time since I read it. Didn't disappoint on a reread!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Vain and silly King Lear demands that each of his three daughters describe their love for him. When the youngest and favored Cordelia gives a reply that is less gushing, but more reasonable, than her sisters, the King banishes her. This sets up a chain of miserable events in which the sisters and their husbands scramble to replace Cordelia in their father's heart, but fail because ambition brings out their cruelty.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Maybe the fifteenth time I've read Lear (this time in the tiny red-leather RSC edition). Always impressed, especially with the curses and curse-like screeds. I can't stand Lear onstage, particularly the blinding of Gloster (so spelled in this edition). How sharper than a serpants teeth it is / to have a thankless child--though having a thankless parent like Lear, Act I Sc I, ain't so great either. I do love the Russian film Lear with music by Shostakovich, and the King's grand route through his bestiary of hawks and eagles.I suppose this is Shakespeare's great (that's redundant, since "Sh" is mostly "great") assessment of homelessness. The undeservingly roofless. it is also his only play on retirement, which he recommends against. Or perhaps Lear should have had a condo in Florida? Of course, his hundred knights, a problem for the condominium board, as it was for his daughters. And Shakespeare, who says in a sonnet he was "lame by fortune's despite" also addresses the handicapped here, recommending tripping blind persons to cheer them up.Of course, Lear has his personal Letterman-Colbert, the Fool, so he doesn't need a TV in the electrical storm on the heath. That's fortunate, because it would have been dangerous to turn on a TV with all that lightening. The play seems also to recommend serious disguises like Kent's dialects and Edgar's mud. Next time I go to a party I'll think about some mud, which reduces Edgar's likelihood of being killed by his former friends.And finally, the play touches on senility, where Lear cannot be sure at first Cordelia is his daughter.I'm not sure, but the author may be recommending senility as a palliative to tragedy--and to aging. A friend of mine once put it, "Who's to say the senile's not having the time of his life?"
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    What can I say about Shakespeare. He wrote a tragedy and I lived it through this book. Though reading such complicated manner of writing was a difficult task, I did not disturb my understanding of the story line. Since it is a tragedy, I was not a surprise to me that people died at the end, but the reason for which they died made me almost cry. One of the main themes of this tragedy is the bond between a father and a his offspring: King Lear and his daughters and Gloucester and his sons. Honesty and betrayal play an important role in the plot. I was socked by the behavior of the two daughters towards their father. They were mean to his just so they can get his kingdom. Although, Lear only wanted their love. I was a good read for sure and I can't wait until I will be able to discuss it with my classmates.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Perhaps the best of Shakespeare's plays. I have read this one a few times and it is a play to which I can return and return. I say "perhaps" Shakespeare's best only because I truly love several of his plays and whore-about in my preference, tossing my Willy-love hither and yon to any Dark Prince that may happen past. Ah love! 'Tis a fickle mistress.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I recently read this for the Shakespeare module on my degree, and was a little disappointed. Having been told it was the Bard's masterpiece, I perhaps came to it with rather high expectations, but then doesn't everyone with Shakespeare? In my own opinion I feel that it falls short of Hamlet, though is superior to Othello, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet in Shakespeare's line-up of 'famous tragedies' in terms of reading; on performance I cannot comment having seen only Hamlet and R&J. The Fool is an excellent character, and his relationship with Cordelia perhaps the most interesting in the drama. Edmond is also a good dramatic character, but the sisters Regan and Gonerill were flat. Lear's language is itself at times brilliant, but something left me wanting the dexterity of Hamlet. Cordelia is powerful in her absence, and really dominates the final act through her own speech, and that of Lear. The play is undoubtedly infused with some magical moments, but as a text to read, it does not, for me, inspire or humor as Hamlet manages.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Thoughts and Observations Upon Looking Into King LearBy William Shakespeare‘Nothing can come from nothing, speak again.’King Lear speaks these words in the opening scene of the play. It speaks to a world devoid of meaning. A man comes to the end of his life and must die. What is he left with in the days of his death? In so living, he travels the arch of humanness and dissolves into the earth. He has lived so that he may live. Each act is an act for life built on the act of living. What is life but a life lived. What does it mean to be alive? To be alive is the act of living where a life lived is the act of dying? We come into this world with a breadth of air sustainable only to our last. To speak again is to breathe new life into the act of dying. But King Lear never speaks again. This is the tragedy where nothing can come from nothing.Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. --Macbeth'Which of you shall we say doth love us most,That we our largest bounty may extendWhere nature doth with merit challenge?'King Lear is so loved in reverence that his desire to be loved rules his perception of what it is to love. He supposes he has nurtured a bond with his youngest daughter Cordelia but stubs his toe in his final love for Cordelia. He seeks to bind Cordelia to his love. He cannot see to love Cordelia is to set her free to love on her own. Love blinds, and reveals weaker passions that lead to madness. How did the King and Queen raise their three daughters? Lear has shown a tendency for a quick temper and foolish judgments. Could there be some violent secrets within Lear’s family. The actions of Goneril and Regan could be a result of previous acts by Lear. Cordelia not participating in Lear’s public announcement of the division of the kingdom could also speak to this. Lear may have thought of himself, as lovable, loving, and greatly loved but is not seen this way by his daughters. This is a play of sins of the father as well as the unnaturalness of children to their parents. Where did Goneril and Regan inherent their evil natures? Is the love of King Lear a love of reverence to the King? Lear mistakes this for true love. He knows this hence his banishment of Cordelia with the words 'Let it be so, thy truth then be thy dower.'Proverbs 11:29He who brings trouble on his family will inherent only wind,And the fool will be servant to the wise.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Teaching it for the second time. The Folger edition is okay, but it badly needs to be updated; and the illustrations in the facing page are, to my mind, badly chosen, unless they're meant only to promote the grandeur of the Folger library. I think they would have done much better to provide photos of scenes taken from various productions/films/adaptations of Lear; no doubt the students would pay more attention to such things, to say nothing of nonexpert instructors like me.

    Oh, the play: certainly very good at cutting the legs out from under the notion that suffering can be redemptive. Lear discovers compassion and love, Gloucester grows up, but what do they get? Death. And what are we left with? The two appalling milquetoast prigs, Albany and Edgar,* perhaps the two characters in Lear who understand least well what the whole thing is about. At least Kent has the grace to go off and wait to die.

    * Hilarious: I just googled these names and the second hit is some plagiarism mill that's selling an essay that reads "Albany and Edgar both possess honest and kind characters." You have got to be kidding me! Please, please, please let someone try to get this paper past me. How stupid or desperate would someone have to be to pay for a paper that's, at best, a B-?
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This play was discussed by the Great Books KC group of which I am a member. We also watched the movie "A Thousand Acres" to see another version of the plot. This story becomes more harrowing the older one becomes. It's a reminder that one's children don't always remain loyal. But then again, some parents do bad things or make unwise choices.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    There are three main reasons for the disorder already occurring by the end of Act I. The first and most obvious is Lear's madness. He certain seems to be loosing it a bit, and his crazed banishment of Cordelia and Kent couldn't possibly have done anything but harm to him. The second reason is Cordelia's sister's treachery. It could be argued that they appear to be trying to protect him and their people by taking away his knights, he is crazy after all, if it weren't for Cordelia's parting words to them; "I know you what you are;/And, like a sister, am most loth to call/Your faults as they are nam'd. Love well our father:/To your professed bosoms I commit him:/But yet, alas, stood I within his grace, I would prefer him to a better place." And a few lines later; "Time shall unfold what plighted cunning/Who cover faults, at last shame them derides." These lines seem to indicate that Cordelia knows that Goneril and Regan are not only flattering Lear for gain, but also that they hold him in contempt, and will likely do him harm, and revealing the second harbinger of disorder.

    The third indicator of the chaos to come is Edmund. I feel bad for him, for the contempt others hold him in because of the doings of his parents, but he quickly does what he can to dispel my pity for him with his evil attitudes as he works to turn his father and brother against one another. I find it ironic that he distains his father's belief in fate through astrology, yet confesses that because of when he was born he was supposed to be 'rough and lecherous,' yet doesn't believe himself to have those traits he was just showing.

    Shakespeare's purpose in showing this disorder seems to come from the idea of dividing his kingdom. A divided kingdom would often lead to civil war and chaos, so Lear's deliberate dividing of the kingdom would probably have been viewed as deliberately inviting disorder.

    Power in England was structured in a pyramid. The king on top, and wealth and power went to a few nobles who had all the money. Lear was trying to disrupt that structure in a way that would have alarmed the people watching the play. Cordelia took a great risk in not bowing to her father's wishes, as his denying her dowry could have driven away both her suitors, leaving her alone and destitute in a world that didn't favor lone women. In her case, however Cordelia's suitor from France still marries her, which would be very unusual since she had no dowry, and she wouldn't gain him an alliance with England.

    Family dynamics can change depending on the health of a person, as others may come into their lives and as children grow up. Cordelia was Lear's favorite child, yet when she would not lie to him with flattery, he cast her off. Why? Did he not realize that her impending marriage would change is relationship with her? She would still love him, of course, but even with the play being in pre-Christian era, the belief would probably have been that the wife's foremost alliegence should be to her husband, and Lear should have understood this. In fact, it seems strange that he would have even questioned this part of the structure of society at all.

    No one has a perfect family. This is shown in Edgar and Edmund's family. Gloster (or Gloucester as some versions call him) may have been unfaithful to his wife, it's never stated whether she was alive at the time of Edmund's conception. If Gloster was unfaithful to his wife than he was dishonest and breaking one of the oldest understandings of marriage. If Edgar's mother had already died, that Gloster was not responsible enough to remarry, and to marry Edmund's mother, or at least admit himself Edmund's father when the boy was a child, instead of waiting until Edmund was old enough to distinguish himself, and in doing so, add to Gloster's reputation. It seems very unfair that Edmund, and almost any other illigitmate child born until the the late 1900s should be punished for something that their parents did. Yet neither should Edmund take out his misfortunes on his brother, who was, in all probability, guiltless in tormenting him. After all, Edgar trusts Edmund completely, which does not seem like an attitude he would hold had he tormented Edmund before. I think that Gloster could have stopped his fate had he treated Edmund with kindness from the beginning of his life, rather than waiting until Edmund could add to his reputation to acknowledge him.

    I don't actually seem him mocking Edmund, so much as simply being ashamed of his illegitimacy because it was Gloster's own act that was the cause of Edmund's bastardy. As Gloster was speaking to Kent, he was very frank about the manner of Edmund's conception, to the point that we would say he was being rude to Edmund, but really, for the time, the fact that he had acknowledged Edmund as his son at all was better than many bastards would have gotten. For this reason I think that more than anything it was the fact that he took so long to acknowledge Edmund, that led to Edmund's bitterness and Gloster's downfall.

    (This review is patched up from posts I made on an online Shakespeare class)
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Another great tragic tale as told my Shakespeare. Like all his plays, you're able to dig deep into this story and draw out tons of stories, themes and hidden meanings out of all its layers. An enjoyable read for any Shakespeare enthusiast.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    After all these years, I still cannot understand Shakespeare. I read every single word. The Fool made me laugh out loud exactly twice. I give it three stars because I'm sure it's great, but I just don't get it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is my favorite Shakespeare tragedy. The plot, language, and characterization show the dramatist at his mature best.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Excellent work. I saw this performed at the Great River Shakespeare Festival in Winona, MN. Very powerful performance. I liked this edition in particular because it explained the nuances of the language right next to the original text. That plus the performance made this easier to understand.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    To sum up the play in one sentence: this is the story of a king seeking to divide his kingdom among his three daughters based on who could articulate her love for him the best. Beyond that it is the tragedy of emotional greed - of wanting to be loved at any cost. It is the tragedy of politics and family dynamics. Youngest daughter Cordelia is unwilling to conform to her father's wishes of exaggerated devotion. Isn't the last born always the rebel in the family? As a result Cordelia's portion of the kingdom is divided among her two sisters, Goneril and Regan. The story goes on to ooze betrayal and madness. Lear is trapped by his own ego and made foolish by his hubris.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The writer I feel most in awe of, by a mile, is Shakespeare. I'm not going to say anything much about him because it's all been said, so I'll just say he's the boss, and the play that most shocks and thrills and saddens me is King Lear. But I could almost have said exactly the same about most of the plays he wrote. Every time I experience him in performance I feel overwhelmed by his brilliance, and I just have to shut up before I get too sycophantic.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I hadn't read Shakespeare since my sophomore year of high school, and I remember the language as beautiful but seemingly antiquated to my fifteen year old mind. When I had to read King Lear for my British Literature class in college, I worried about having a similar experience. One forgets how one grows as a reader. It was a foolish presumption. Lear was, in fact, one of the most readable dramas I have yet read. Shakespeare's masterful penchant for creating psychological depth and painfully human conflict is his characters makes for many riveting scenes. Shakespeare's beautiful language and great skill in composing a narrative makes this a tragedy in every sense of the word. Though it has a couple laughs, thanks mostly to the banter of the Fool, this play has a truly bleak ending that strikes you right in the gut.