{"product_id":"the-year-of-lear-shakespeare-in-1606-9781416541653","title":"The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606","description":"Preeminent Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro shows how the tumultuous events in 1606 influenced three of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies written that year--\u003ci\u003eKing Lear, Macbeth, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eAntony and Cleopatra. \u003c\/i\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Year of Lear\u003c\/i\u003e is irresistible--a banquet of wisdom\" (\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e). \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn the years leading up to 1606, Shakespeare's great productivity had ebbed. But that year, at age forty-two, he found his footing again, finishing a play he had begun the previous autumn--\u003ci\u003eKing Lear\u003c\/i\u003e--then writing two other great tragedies, \u003ci\u003eMacbeth\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eAntony and Cleopatra\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIt was a memorable year in England as well--a terrorist plot conceived by a small group of Catholic gentry had been uncovered at the last hour. The foiled Gunpowder Plot would have blown up the king and royal family along with the nation's political and religious leadership. The aborted plot renewed anti-Catholic sentiment and laid bare divisions in the kingdom. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIt was against this background that Shakespeare finished \u003ci\u003eLear\u003c\/i\u003e, a play about a divided kingdom, then wrote a tragedy that turned on the murder of a Scottish king, \u003ci\u003eMacbeth\u003c\/i\u003e. He ended this astonishing year with a third masterpiece no less steeped in current events and concerns: \u003ci\u003eAntony and Cleopatra\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Exciting and sometimes revelatory, in \u003ci\u003eThe Year of Lear, \u003c\/i\u003e James Shapiro takes a closer look at the political and social turmoil that contributed to the creation of three supreme masterpieces\" (\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e). He places them in the context of their times, while also allowing us greater insight into how Shakespeare was personally touched by such events as a terrible outbreak of plague and growing religious divisions. \"His great gift is to make the plays seem at once more comprehensible and more staggering\" (\u003ci\u003eThe New York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e). For anyone interested in Shakespeare, this is an indispensable book.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Simon \u0026amp; Schuster\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/18\/2016\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781416541653\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 384\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.65lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.30h x 5.50w x 1.00d","brand":"James Shapiro","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":36649849979036,"sku":"9781416541653","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_65017799-6f05-4d37-99c8-f32c9d79d4d5.jpg?v=1603873868","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-year-of-lear-shakespeare-in-1606-9781416541653","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}