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King Lear Critical Studies

Bloom's Shakespeare Through the Ages - King Lear by Harold Bloom

A study of the most important criticism of King Lear by the renowned Shakespearean scholar Harold Bloom. Included in the book are a selection of critical works including John Dryden, Samuel Johnson and A.C. Bradley on King Lear, an essay on the development of King Lear criticism in each century, a biography of Shakespeare, and King Lear analysed in plot, characters and key passages.

An Essay on King Lear by S.L. Goldberg

An exploration of the morality at the centre of the play, with an emphasis on how King Lear refuses to supply a conclusion of natural justice prevailing. Professor Goldberg examines the characters, plot and language and with sensitivity and intelligence looks at the way King Lear challenges our moral sensibilities.  

The King and the Adulteress: A Psychoanalytic and Literary Reinterpretation of Madame Bovary and King Lear by Roberto Speziale-Bagliacca

Renowned Psychoanalyst Speziale-Bagliacca takes a critical look at the authoritarian pathology and sado-masochistic relationships in Lear, thereby turning the perceived interpretations of the characters on their heads. Taking on board recent studies on depression, Speziale-Bagliacca argues that it is not Lear that is the true victim of the play, but Regan, Goneril and Edmund who are his victims.  

Law and Love: The Trials of King Lear by Paul W. Kahn

Paul Kahn takes a look at the legal implications of King Lear, from the division of the kingdom where he explores the incompatibility of the value of love with the laws of the state, to the political and psychological implications of the actions of the play on the characters. 

Shakespearean Tragedy by A.C. Bradley

One of the greatest modern works of Shakespearean criticism, Professor Bradley's 1904 lectures on King Lear, Othello, Hamlet, and Macbeth go into extraordinary details on the complexity of Shakespeare's tragic characters and their intentions.

The Wheel of Fire by G. Wilson Knight

Originally published in 1930, G. Wilson Knight's essays on Shakespearean tragedy are dramatic and bold, arguing for a spatial examination of King Lear on its own terms. Knight searches for the grotesque comedy at the centre of Lear in order to greater understand the duality of the universe which Shakespeare created. 

Shakespeare Our Contemporary by Jan Kott

Professor Kott in his classic book first published in 1974, examines the influence of Shakespeare's plays (especially King Lear) and the need for making the works have contemporary  relevance. Kott examines the influence of King Lear on Samuel Beckett and the existential philosophy that contributes to the tragedy.