King Richard III (The New Cambridge Shakespeare) - Softcover

Shakespeare, William

3.91

53,952 ratings by Goodreads

9780521276320: King Richard III (The New Cambridge Shakespeare)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521276322 ISBN 13: 9780521276320

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1999

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King Richard III is one of Shakespeare's most popular and frequently-performed plays. Janis Lull's introduction to this new edition, based on the First Folio, emphasises the play's tragic themes - individual identity, determinism and choice - and stresses the importance of women's roles in the play. It also underscores the special relationship between Richard III and Macbeth, demonstrating that the later tragedy re-examines issues raised in the earlier one. A thorough performance history of stage and film versions of Richard III shows how the text has been cut, rewritten and re-shaped by directors and actors to enhance the role of Richard at the expense of other parts, especially those of the women. The notes define the play's language and ideas in terms easily accessible to contemporary readers.

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Review:

"Now is the winter of our discontent," intones Richard, Duke of Gloucester at the beginning of Shakespeare's Richard III, one of his most abidingly popular plays, and one of the most chilling portrayals of political tyranny ever seen on stage. Richard emerges from the chaos which surrounds the reign of Henry VI, already dramatised by Shakespeare earlier in his career, determined to become king by removing his elder brother Edward IV by convincing him that their brother Clarence is plotting against the crown. The deaths of both Clarence and Edward take Richard inexorably towards the crown, and the series of murders and conspiracies that Richard masterminds confirms his claim that "I am determined to prove a villain". Richard's political and sexual charisma are truly chilling, and his seduction of Lady Anne, over her husband's corpse is one of the most disturbing scenes in Shakespeare. At another level, the play is also a strongly anti-Yorkist play, which has a vested interest in portraying Richard as such as vicious tyrant before seeing him toppled, ushering in a period of rule which prefigured the Tudor dynasty of which Elizabeth I was herself a part. The play has had a deep and lasting influence on audiences and writers; Brecht rewrote the play as The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, while both Laurance Olivier and Ian Mckellen have produced memorable film versions of Richard III, the latter updating the play into a 1930s fascist state ruled over by a Richard akin to Oswald Mosley. --Jerry Brotton

Review:

"Richard III's stage history is especially interesting and well presented." Bibliotheque Humanisme

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