num_pages: 528
description: The traditional Lear is a ponderous play of great poignancy. Lear haunts us ever, calls to us as mystically as the evening star, whose distant glimmer beckons us back into the misty memory of time immemorial. Certainly Dylan Thomas' admonition to the aged to rage, rage, against the dying of the light applies to Lear. Take off the Victorian blinders, however, and the insatiable sexuality of the Princesses Goneril and Regan and the vile machinations of the lustful Edmund et al serve up a sizzling tale of monumental and self-destructive evil. A surprisingly fast-paced story in novel form. [106 words including title] The Novel Many critics call Cymbeline a tragicomedy; others label it a romance. I'll take romance, as it is the secret marriage of the Princess Imogen and Posthumus and their survival which drives this wide-ranging saga through a series of twists and often harrowing escapades, some extremely villainous, and thence to a soul-satisfying denouement. Shakespeare sets his many memorable characters at cross purposes and lets the intriguing plot work itself out. Although the backdrop is a Celtic-Roman war, our concern focuses from beginning to end on the struggle of the lovers to be together. [95 words including title]
language: English
title: King Lear & Cymbeline
titlecomplete: King Lear & Cymbeline (The Shakespeare Novels)
publisher: Xlibris Corp