King Lear

This tragedy, printed in the 1623 Folio and current earlier in quarto, opens when the aging Lear divides Britain among his daughters according to their public declarations of love. Goneril and Regan flatter him and receive the realm; Cordelia refuses the ritual and is disinherited. Lear then discovers what power he has given away, while a parallel plot follows the Earl of Gloucester, his legitimate son Edgar, and the illegitimate Edmund, who sets father against brother. Storm, exile, and a French landing press the two households. The play examines authority, kinship, and the stripping away of rank from men who thought themselves secure.

Bound in red cloth with a quill design in red and black. White dust-jacket printed in grey, black and red. Second impression, no dust-jacket and issued in mottled grey slipcase.