King Lear

My favorite Shakespeare play

I am a man More sinn'd against than sinning.
^ Lear is pathetic and wrong! His need for power (even when he's voluntarily given it up) is a trait that he's surely handed down to his daughters, which is why most of this happens in the first place. I adore the writing here, and the contrasting narrative with Edmund's betrayal enriches the themes greatly!

You can really tell Shakespeare was in his mid-life crisis when writing this one. Also, we should be concerned about the relationship he had with his daughters

I had the great pleasure of going to see this in Stratford this fall. Paul Gross was playing Lear. I really like this production. Lear has never been one of my favourite plays. This time I could connect more to King Lear and the journey through which he was going through. Hooray Stratford 2023 Season.

I listened to this on an audiobook that had a full performance (different voice actors for each character) and that was definitely the way to go!

“When we are born, we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools.”

“This is the excellent foppery of the world, that,when we are sick in fortune,–often the surfeitof our own behavior,–we make guilty of ourdisasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: asif we were villains by necessity; fools byheavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, andtreachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards,liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience ofplanetary influence; and all that we are evil in,by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasionof whoremaster man, to lay his goatishdisposition to the charge of a star.”

Sad. I was confused at parts, but it was fine.

I think I definitely like the tragedies more than the comedies.

Practically everyone I know who is reading this right now hates it. Why??? I don't understand???

Perhaps it's just me but I found this to be far more entertaining than Othello. While I admit that there were some lulls in the plot and there was a fair share of unexplained occurrences, the book remained fascinating and engaging. I found the characters so unique and perplexing- each one was developed far more than a single character was in other Shakespeare tales I've read. They were vicious, manipulative, and vexing.

Let me read more about crazy old men and the daughters who swear their unwavering fealty to them.

This is the Shakespeare that I came here for and I am loving it (bring on Macbeth though cause come on that story is everything I yearn for and more).

Wow. This play is DEFINITELY not overrated in the Shakespeare canon. So remarkable and moving. Just the text is enough to make you cry at several points. Incredible.

Extraordinarily powerful, even for Shakespeare. Wish I didn't rush through most of it.