Customer Reviews
King Lear Arden Shakespeare - By: Spider Monkey, 03 Nov 2007 
'King Lear' is probably one of my favourite Shakespeare plays & is currently the one most studied at A-Levels. It is famed for it's depiction of the infirmity of old age & complex family politics. In some respects I think it'd be rather presumptuous of me to attempt to review Shakespeare. Someone so well known & influential wouldn't benefit from my opinions on their work, plus there are more scholarly & concise reviews out there. But I can comment on these Arden versions. Of all the Shakespeare I've read I've always found the Arden copies to be well laid out & to have excellent commentary & notes on the text. They really add to your understanding of Shakespeares outstanding plays & introduce you to the depthin his work. They have superb paper quality & are bound well, withstanding repeated readings & intensive study. For your collection of Shakespeare you can't do much better than Arden publications, some are quite hard to get hold of but it's worth the effort.
The Arden Lear (Good or bad?) - By: , 14 Nov 2002 
No one is disputing that King Lear is a great play. It is. The story of the king attempting to hand over his kingdom to his children, & having everything go horribly wrong, is epic & the work of a genius.
Now, however, when Victorian jokes are alien to our world, what we need to review is not the play itself (which has stood the test of time, for greatness), but the particular edition of the play -in this case by Arden Shakespeare.
Unfortunately, I don't think this version is particularly great. Many of the annotations are incomplete, while others are just wrong (to the reasoned reader of the play). This,in my opinion either makes of breaks an annotated book of a Shakespearean work.
The Book is full of details concerning the perfoming of Learin the theatre & the history of Lear. More than half the book is devoted to the historical aspect of the play,in fact. If you want this much biographical detail, as well as the play itself, then the Arden Shakespeare may be the book for you. Otherwise, look for a lighter, better annoteated edition of Lear.
Lear is a superb play if understood & I'm not sure if this Arden book leads to complete understanding. Not recommended for someone interestedin Shakespeare for the first time.
Rich, Powerful and Tragic - By: , 24 Aug 2001 The tale of Lear's betrayal by his family & subsequent tragic descent into madness is powerfully gripping. Shakespeare keeps the plot simple, but ensures that the undertones are remarkably complex. In Lear's most poignant speech, when he begins the journey to insanity, he demands that we "allow not nature more than nature needs" & forewarns that his heart will "break into a hundred thousand flaws". These predictions unfoldin vivid & dramatic style throughout a play laced with reference to nature's omnipotence.
