King Lear
by William Shakespeare · first published 1608
29% recommend69% neutral2% critical
Why HN recommends it
Shakespeare tragedy ranked among his greatest, with a memorable scene of the king raging in a field beside the Fool. Rewards readers willing to build background; modern-English editions help newcomers.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
King Lear divides his kingdom among the two daughters who flatter him and banishes the third one who loves him. His eldest daughters both then reject him at their homes, so Lear goes mad and wanders through a storm. His banished daughter returns with an army, but they lose the battle and Lear, all his daughters and more, die. ([source][1]) [1]: https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/shakespedia/shakespeares-plays/king-lear/
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…Books lists will almost never lead you wrong. But, here we go anyway (and yeah, some of these are just off those lists): 1) Shakespeare's big four tragedies are, in fact, out-fucking-standing. Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Macbeth. IMO Hamlet reads the best of those. Any would be fine to watch, as well, and may be better that way. The language, especially, is easier to understand when performed, because you have…
on “Ask HN: What are some must read books?” ↗…work of such depth, with so many layers, yet with a consistency and a wholeness. JS Bach is the only other artist I have seen to produce a similar “Forrest” and “Trees” views within his artwork. While King Lear is my personal favorite of Shakespeare’s plays, I acknowledge Hamlet his greatest in all aspects (poetry, philosophy, etc).
on ““Hamlet” by T. S. Eliot (1919)” ↗You are aware that de Vere died in 1604, and Shakespeare published 13 plays between then and his death in 1616? Among those 13 are some of his best works, like King Lear and Macbeth, so it's not like he was running out of 'A' material in those years either. >Maybe the plays and sonnets read like late Tudor court poetry because they are late Tudor court poetry? I imagine…
on “Shakespeare: Actor, Playwright, Social Climber” ↗…there's little point in reading things if you can't enjoy them. I started my journey into history and the classics later in life. I never thought I'd ever actually enjoy reading Shakespeare, and yet King Lear is one of my favorites (but it takes a lot of background knowledge to enjoy). So start with someone contemporary to the last 30 years or so. Think of the genres of TV shows or movies you do enjoy, and…
on “Ask HN: I don't read fiction, how much am I missing out on?” ↗King Lear (Shakespeare). Disgrace (Coetzee). The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoevsky). Тихий Дон (Sholohov's name is on the cover; there are several translations under various titles as Quiet Don or something like that).
on “Ask HN: What is the greatest book you've ever read?” ↗…Mostly from the 20th Century". Which is good and well, but there's thousands of years of great literature to draw from. And I've read far too little of it. As for Shakespeare, I prefer Henry IV and King Lear. Edit: Three books about Theodore Roosevelt? He was Norris-like, but history furnishes a great many awesome badasses. I quite admire Gaius Julius Caesar personally.
on “100 Books: The Essential Man’s Library” ↗See the series "No Fear Shakespeare" by SparkNotes, e.g. King Lear starts here: https://www.sparknotes.com/nofear/shakespeare/lear/page_2/ The full set is here: https://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/#jumpTo-no-fear Ignore anyone who may look down on using this. The…
on “A happy ending for King Lear? Trauma of plague caused Shakespeare to change it” ↗Shakespeare is from around the same time period as Rabelais in OP. If you haven't read Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, As You Like It, they also take some getting used to but are worth it in the end.
on “Short Little Difficult Books” ↗…is a real person, and no real person has done everything at a high level, or an all-time great level. Shakespeare's name is on some duds. But the famous great plays - Richard III (especially topical), King Lear, Hamlet, etc. - are monuments to humanity's genius. > After I read each poem, I ran it through Claude AI for an interpretation and an explanation of the obscure references. The explanations were helpful.…
on “Poetry book that Anthropic tried to censor” ↗I remember the teacher talking up Romeo and Juliet and being fairly unimpressed. But when I read King Lear, I was electrified- that scene with the king ranging around in the field while the fool says smart things is really good IMHO. I saw the Scottish Play put on by my high school theater and it was also…
on “My ranking of every Shakespeare play” ↗May I prescribe a course in reading? Read Zola's Germinal. Read Moby Dick. Leaves of Grass. Pride and Prejudice. King Lear. Les Miserables. Lysistrata. The Odyssey. Anything great. We all (for reasonable values of 'all') yearn. It's the human condition. "true ambitions" suggests a fairly naive view of the world. To put…
on “I'm 25 years old and I am lost” ↗I don’t think many have read your link. It’s great. Some lines from King Lear: The best and soundest of his time hath been but rash; then must we look to receive from his age, not alone the imperfections of long-engraffed condition, but therewithal the unruly waywardness that…
on “Making Elizabethan plays understandable and fun to read” ↗Sadly (?) the only memories I have of Shakespeare are the forced readings in my sophomore (Julius Caesar) and junior (King Lear) years in high school, both of which I hated and for which Cliff's Notes were my crutch to get through.
on “William Shakespeare, Playwright and Poet, Is Dead at 52” ↗…aside but... if you like Tolstoy and Shakespeare reading Tolstoy's take down of Shakespeare is super interesting: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Tolstoy_on_Shakespeare He specifically goes to town on King Lear and gets into some interesting discussions on how he thinks the earlier Lear Shakespeare referenced is structurally better. Also reveals Tolstoy's own perspective on writing as a moral endeavor which…
on “A happy ending for King Lear? Trauma of plague caused Shakespeare to change it” ↗>You also realize there is no trade off between depth and breadth. It's a false dichotomy. It's a tradeoff because of the finite time for reading. One can reread Shakespeare's 4 tragedies (Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Macbeth) again for the 10th time (about 8 hours of reading) -- or -- read E.L. James "50 Shades of Grey" for the 1st time (also about ~8 hours of reading). Some writers may suggest that you…
on “The Case Against Reading Everything” ↗