Timon of Athens (Thrift Editions) - Softcover

Shakespeare, William

3.44

7,073 ratings by Goodreads

9780486796956: Timon of Athens (Thrift Editions)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0486796957 ISBN 13: 9780486796956

Publisher: Dover Publications Inc., 2015

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A wealthy citizen of ancient Greece, Timon delights in entertaining his friends and lavishing them with extravagant gifts. His largesse ultimately exceeds his means, and when creditors begin to press him for repayment, the open-handed host is devastated to discover that the guests — who gladly accepted everything he had — have now turned their backs on him. Profoundly disillusioned, Timon forswears society and retreats to the wilderness, where further discoveries await.
In this deeply cynical drama, Shakespeare tells a thought-provoking tale of conspicuous consumption, debt, ruin, and misanthropy. Combining elements of tragedy, satire, and farce, Timon of Athens poses ever-relevant questions about the meaning of friendship, generosity, and gratitude.

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Review:

A messy, uneven and disillusioned play, Timon of Athens is rarely studied or performed because of scepticism regarding both its authorship and completion. Like Pericles there seems little doubt that Shakespeare wrote the majority, but quite what he was trying to do is another matter.

Timon of Athens is rich and generous, happy to provide his friends, servants and acquaintances with money whenever they require it. Only the cynical Apemantus questions the soundness of Timon's actions, and the motives of his supposed friends, wondering at "what a number of men eats Timon, and he sees 'em not. It grieves me to see so many dip their meat in one man's blood." When Timon's creditors ask for payment of their loans, Timon goes to his friends, but they all refuse to help him. Even worse, Timon's one loyal friend Alcibiades is exiled from Athens. After renouncing all his friends at one last banquet, Timon retires to a misanthropic life as a hermit in a cave. As he rails against "yellow, glittering precious gold", he completely renounces mankind, to die alone in his cave, his epitaph claiming that "Here lie I, Timon, who alive / All living men did hate". One of Shakespeare's more puzzling plays, Timon of Athens is unusually bleak and unforgiving, with Timon behaving like an unsympathetic version of Lear (they were both written within a couple of years of each other). --Jerry Brotton

Review:

"Working with Omar Pound, an expert on Lewis and controller of rights to his estate, and using my own understanding of Lewis' work, I have attempted to create the work that he would have done. It is bound on boards with a clamshell box covered with Italian Linen book cloth."--Charles D. Jones

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