King John - Softcover

Shakespeare, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0174436130 ISBN 13: 9780174436133

Publisher: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1965

Synopsis

This book (hardcover) is part of the TREDITION CLASSICS. It contains classical literature works from over two thousand years. Most of these titles have been out of print and off the bookstore shelves for decades. The book series is intended to preserve the cultural legacy and to promote the timeless works of classical literature. Readers of a TREDITION CLASSICS book support the mission to save many of the amazing works of world literature from oblivion. With this series, tredition intends to make thousands of international literature classics available in printed format again - worldwide.

About this title

Review:

One of Shakespeare's most unpopular history plays, King John deals with the life and death of King John, who reigned from 1199 to 1216. This is as early as Shakespeare goes in his treatment of English history, concentrating more successfully on the later 14th and 15th centuries in the plays which stretch from Richard II to Henry VI. As a result King John suffers from being so historically distant in time, as well as offering a rather weak and vacillating king, who lacks the charisma and authority of Richard III or Henry V. The play begins with King John struggling to retain his throne, under attack from rebellious courtiers and Philip, the king of France. As the quarrel escalates into war with France, the play begins to take on a contemporary Elizabethan flavour--the feared invasion from a foreign (Catholic) nation, and the extent to which such an invasion is based on the questionable paternity of King John (like Queen Elizabeth, John is accused of being a bastard and is excommunicated). The play is saved from its rather colourless political machinations by Philip the Bastard, John's favourite, a dramatic forerunner of dubious but charismatic malcontents like Edmund in King Lear. It is also Philip who is given the most powerful and patriotic lines, when he claims that "This England never did, nor never shall,/Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror". King John's mysterious and anticlimactic death through illness at the end of the play deflates expectations - something that could be said of the play as a whole. --Jerry Brotton

Review:

"Advanced students and scholars working with King John and its text will find the edition invaluable."--Choice "Advanced students and scholars working with King John and its text will find the edition invaluable."--Choice "Advanced students and scholars working with King John and its text will find the edition invaluable."--Choice "Advanced students and scholars working with King John and its text will find the edition invaluable."--Choice

About this edition

• Publisher: Van Nostrand Reinhold
• Publication date: 1965
• ISBN 10: 0174436130
• ISBN 13: 9780174436133
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2