Richard III

by William Shakespeare

Overview

Trouble is brewing for King Edward IV. Edward's youngest brother, Richard, is jealous of Edward's power and influence. Richard will do anything to overthrow the king: He manipulates a noblewoman into marrying him. He arranges for his brother Clarence to be executed, then blames Clarence's death on King Edward. After Edward becomes ill and dies, Richard attains the throne through villainous means. But Richard's trail of deception, manipulation, and murder might eventually be the cause of his own downfall. This unabridged edition of the history play written by English playwright William Shakespeare was written around 1592 and first published in 1597.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467798327
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/01/2015
Series:	First Avenue Classics
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	176
File size:	373 KB
Age Range:	14 - 15 Years

About the Author

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in April 1564, and his birth is traditionally celebrated on April 23. The facts of his life, known from surviving documents, are sparse. He was one of eight children born to John Shakespeare, a merchant of some standing in his community. William probably went to the King’s New School in Stratford, but he had no university education. In November 1582, at the age of eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, eight years his senior, who was pregnant with their first child, Susanna. She was born on May 26, 1583. Twins, a boy, Hamnet ( who would die at age eleven), and a girl, Judith, were born in 1585. By 1592 Shakespeare had gone to London working as an actor and already known as a playwright. A rival dramatist, Robert Greene, referred to him as “an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers.” Shakespeare became a principal shareholder and playwright of the successful acting troupe, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (later under James I, called the King’s Men). In 1599 the Lord Chamberlain’s Men built and occupied the Globe Theater in Southwark near the Thames River. Here many of Shakespeare’s plays were performed by the most famous actors of his time, including Richard Burbage, Will Kempe, and Robert Armin. In addition to his 37 plays, Shakespeare had a hand in others, including Sir Thomas More and The Two Noble Kinsmen, and he wrote poems, including Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. His 154 sonnets were published, probably without his authorization, in 1609. In 1611 or 1612 he gave up his lodgings in London and devoted more and more time to retirement in Stratford, though he continued writing such plays as The Tempest and Henry VII until about 1613. He died on April 23 1616, and was buried in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford. No collected edition of his plays was published during his life-time, but in 1623 two members of his acting company, John Heminges and Henry Condell, put together the great collection now called the First Folio.

Date of Death:

2018

Place of Birth:

Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

Place of Death:

Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Richard III"
by .
Copyright © 1998 William Shakespeare.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Richard III - William Shakespeare - Edited by Mark Eccles Charles Lamb: Letter to Robert Lloyd, from Cooke's 'Richard the Third', and from On the Tragedies of Shakespeare, Considered with Reference to Their Fitness for Stage Representation
A. P. Rossiter: Angel with Horns: The Unity of 'Richard III'
Robert Ornstein: 'Richard III'
Mark Eccles: 'Richard III' on Stage and Screen

NEWLY ADDED ESSAYS: Coppelia Kahn: 'Myself Alone': Richard III and the Dissolution of Masculine Identity

Editorial Reviews

Gorgeous new Shakespeare paperbacks.” 
—Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings

“I have been using the Pelican Shakespeare for years in my lecture course—it's invaluable, the best individual-volume series available for students.”
—Marjorie Garber, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of English and Visual and Environmental Studies, Harvard University 

From the Publisher