What modern readers and audiences generally know as 'Shakespeare's King Lear' is a composite construction created by merging The Tragedie of King Lear (1623) and the earlier (1608) Quarto version. In the last twenty years these two texts have again been disentangled from one another, and recognised as different states in a process of textual production: but only since editors and critics have generally agreed that both texts were separately written by Shakespeare himself, who produced the 1623 version by adapting, editing and 'revising' the Quarto. This new critical edition presents the play in a largely unmodernised form, with a minimum of editorial interference; and argues that both in terms of its relation to the Folio and its character as an individual text, it is better approached formally and historically as an independent play than evaluated on the basis of a speculative theory of authorship.

M. William Shak-speare, His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters (Shakespeare Originals: First Editions)

HOLDERNESS, GRAHAM

Shakespeare., William

Biographies & Memoirs

Prentice Hall Direct

The author looks at some of the ways in which this play has been made accessible, as a romantic story of young love, as "West Side Story" or a colourful and spectacular historical pageant and suggests that they lead away from the Elizabethan play-text. Holderness attempts to relocate the play back into its original performance conditions - he examines and analyzes its language to show how it is designed to work as theatre - and revalues the characters in the light of some reflections on the nature of dramatic roles. On this basis it should be possible to propose some thoughts about the play as a "tragedy" which will take us beyond both Aristotle's poetics and the popular notion of the play as the teenager's experience of heartbreak. Holderness has also written "Who's Who in D.H. Lawrence", "Shakespeare's History", "Shakespeare in Performance: The Taming of the Shrew".

Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet (Critical Studies)

Literature & Fiction

History & Criticism

Penguin??Books

This study explores the theme behind "Richard II" - the power struggle between monarchy and feudal nobility. The language and characters are thoroughly analyzed and lucidity explained to persuade the reader that many commonly held assumptions did not do justice to the drama's intentions. Graham Holderness has written many books including "Who's Who in D.H. Lawrence", "Shakespeare's History", "Shakespeare in Performance: The Taming of the Shrew" and "Romeo and Juliet".

Richard II (Critical Studies, Penguin)

Dramas & Plays

This is an investigation into the peculiarly interchangeable themes and ideology of "The Merchant of Venice". This book debates the problem of genre and traces the history of interpretation of the text.

The Merchant of Venice (Critical Studies, Penguin)

Who's who in D. H. Lawrence

Elm Tree Books

Graham Holderness provides a new treatment of Shakespeare's historical dramas by reviewing past sources in light of modern theory, thus redefining the world about which Shakespeare wrote. He begins with the social and cultural context in which these "historical" plays of chivalric antiquity and masculine virtue were written and suggests that the world depicted in the plays represented a male-dominated aristocracy preoccupied with war and violence. The book reveals antiquity's contradictions in all their glamour and glory, their absurdities and arrogance, and provides alternative contexts for reading Shakespeare's history plays.

Shakespeare: The Histories

British & Irish

PALGRAVE~MACMILLAN

Shakespeare: The Histories brings a completely new approach to Shakespeare's historical dramas. Many previously well-known and influential studies have been governed by Marxist methodologies. This book reviews the plays in the light of modern theory, considering History as re-readings of the past. Both the early modern consciousness of history, obsessed by ghosts and resurrections, and modern preoccupations with language as absence and deferral, provide alternative interpretative contexts for reading Shakespeare's history plays. Holderness concentrates on detailed readings of the plays in the light of these concerns, writing in an accessible way and with an intensified focus on history as writing.

Red Globe Press

This book is part of a controversial new series that raises fundamental questions about the authenticity of Shakespeare's texts as we know them today. In a radical departure from existing series, it presents the earliest known editions of Shakespeare's playsówhich differ substantially from the present versionsóand argues that these are the most authentic we have. The editors present the text in a form as close as possible to its first publication. It includes an introduction, notes and an appendix containing sample facsimile pages from the original printed texts. Throughout, the emphasis of the critical apparatus is on the theoretical and historical significance of the text and its contextual relationships with theatre, history and cultural politics. Published in 1594 under the title The Taming of a Shrew, this play has always been regarded as an earlier version by another dramatist, or as a corrupt "memorial reconstruction" of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Yet the version accepted as Shakespeare's was not published until the First Folio of 1623. The text of A Shrew differs from that of The Shrew. It contains, for example, a complete theatrical "framing" device in the form of the Lord's practical joke on Christopher Sly, where the "Shakespearean" text drops Sly and the framing device early in the play. From the beginning of this century the "non-Shakespearean" text has been used in theatrical practice to complete the authorized but insufficient "Shakespearean" play. This new edition makes The Taming of a Shrew available in full, not as a source or analogue or memorial reconstruction of a Shakespearean original, but in its own right as a brilliantly inventive popular Elizabethan play.

A Pleasant Conceited Historie, Called the Taming of a Shrew (Shakespearean Originals : First Editions)

Loughrey, Bryan

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

This book is part of a controversial new series that raises fundamental questions about the authenticity of Shakespeare's texts as we know them today. In a radical departure from existing series, it presents the earliest known editions of Shakespeare's plays which differ substantially from the present versions and argues that these are the most authentic we have.The editors present the text in a form as close as possible to its first publication. It includes an introduction, notes and an appendix containing sample facsimile pages from the original printed texts. Throughout, the emphasis of the critical apparatus is on the theoretical and historical significance of the text and its contextual relationships with theatre, history and cultural politics."To be, or not to be, there's the point..."(Hamlet, First Quarto).Is the most famous line in the theatre Shakespeare's original wording? According to this 1603 edition, it is not.This text has been rejected by scholars as a "Bad Quarto", a corrupt, pirated text printed without the permission of the playwright or his company. Yet the First Quarto was the first edition of this play to be published and has been produced in the modern theatre with great success. This new edition seeks to acknowledge the play's distinctive poetic and dramatic qualities, instead of comparing them unfavorably to one of the other versions. This may be Shakespeare's real Hamlet.

The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet Prince of Denmarke (Shakespeare Originals: First Editions)

The Shakespeare Myth (Cultural Politics)

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by HOLDERNESS, GRAHAM. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by HOLDERNESS, GRAHAM

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by HOLDERNESS, GRAHAM. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

M. William Shak-speare, His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters (Shakespeare Originals: First Editions)

Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet (Critical Studies)

Richard II (Critical Studies, Penguin)

The Merchant of Venice (Critical Studies, Penguin)

Who's who in D. H. Lawrence

Shakespeare: The Histories

Shakespeare: The Histories

A Pleasant Conceited Historie, Called the Taming of a Shrew (Shakespearean Originals : First Editions)

The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet Prince of Denmarke (Shakespeare Originals: First Editions)

The Shakespeare Myth (Cultural Politics)