Reviews

King Lear by William Shakespeare

ellaeliz27's review

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emotional funny reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

kellyrenea's review against another edition

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5.0

One of Shakespeare’s finest plays written later in life with much irony and skill. Do not miss reading this one. Write more later.

alleysoup's review

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fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

ill with suspicion hot with betrayal

penguin6789's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

happylilkt's review against another edition

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4.0

“The weight of this sad time we must obey,
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say."

What a different play this would be if the characters said what they feel from the very beginning. And, oh King Lear! With the fool I agree: “Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise.”

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Favorite passages:

"This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune, often the surfeit of our own behaviour, we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars; as if we were villains on necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical pre-dominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforc’d obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on. An admirable evasion of whore-master man, to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of a star!"

“A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking knave, a whoreson,
glass-gazing, super-serviceable finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave”
(Kent is the best and this is such a great moment.)

Gloucester: “O, let me kiss that hand!”
Lear: “Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality.”

woodpusher's review against another edition

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5.0

La mejor manera de cerrar un año de excelentes lecturas. Macbeth, La tempestad y Antonio y Cleopatra fueron marcando un ritmo tremendo hasta llegar a este estrenduoso discurso bajo la tormenta. ¡Larga vida al gran bardo!

beckca03's review against another edition

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5.0

I can't help it - I am a Shakespeare fan. Evidently it's trendy to say that Shakespeare didn't write his own stuff now, but whatever- I really don't care. I tend to gravitate towards the historicals (over comedies and tragedies), and this is by far my favorite. I've never been let down by a single play adaptation of King Lear either, so I equate that to good, strong staying power.

siriuslyenya's review against another edition

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slow-paced

3.0

kaylaoswald's review

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dark emotional sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

pancakes_lover's review

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dark sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25