Timon of Athens

by William Shakespeare, Frances E. Dolan (Editor), Frances E. Dolan (Introduction), Stephen Orgel (Editor), A. R. Braunmuller (Editor)

Overview

Karl Klein introduces Shakespeare's play as a complex exploration of a corrupt, moneyed society, and Timon himself as a rich and philanthropic nobleman who is forced to recognize the inherent destructiveness of the Athenian society from which he retreats in disgust and rage. Klein establishes Timon as one of Shakespeare's late works, arguing that evidence for other authors is inconclusive. He shows the play to be neither tragedy, satire nor comedy, but a subtle and complete drama whose main characters contain elements of all three genres.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101667330
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/01/2000
Series:	Pelican Shakespeare Series
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
File size:	2 MB

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 died on April 23, 1616, and was buried in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford. 

A. R. Braunmuller is Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California at Los Angeles. He has written critical volumes on George Peele and George Chapman and has edited plays in both the Oxford (King John) and Cambridge (Macbeth) series of Shakespeare editions. He is also general editor of The New Cambridge Shakespeare. 

Stephen Orgel is the Jackson Eli Reynolds Professor of the Humanities at Stanford University and general editor of the Cambridge Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture. His books include Imagining Shakespeare, The Authentic Shakespeare, Impersonations: The Performance of Gender in Shakespeare’s England and The Illusion of Power.

Date of Death:

2018

Place of Birth:

Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

Place of Death:

Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

Table of Contents

List of illustrations; List of abbreviations and conventions; Introduction: date, the play and its themes, critical approaches, the play on the stage, the 1999 RSC production (A. R. Braunmuller); Narrative and dramatic treatments of the Timon legend from Lucian to The Comedy of Timon' authorship; The Timon legend; List of characters; The play; Supplementary notes; Textual analysis; Reading list.

Editorial Reviews

"Timon of Athens is one of the most enigmatic and underappreciated of Shakespeare's plays, yet its urgency for our times is not to be understated. Guided by Douglas Lanier's astute and accessible commentary throughout, this edition positions Timon in a range of historical, theoretical, and performance contexts. The superb Introduction and supplementary resources help the reader navigate key issues—ranging from money, friendship, and cynicism to art, ethics, and collaborative authorship—as well as consider contemporary adaptations on stage and screen. This edition will be a welcome resource for teachers and students at both undergraduate and graduate levels."
—Jay Zysk, Department of English, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth 

"Douglas Lanier's Introduction immerses us in the play's daring experiments with genre, its ethical and economic dilemmas, and its emotional and tonal range. He shows how Timon of Athens not only resonates with our troubled cultural moment but also speaks eloquently of its own times. His essay on appreciating the play as a performance script advises us expertly on how to read it as directors do and how to be alert to its radical openness to interpretation."
—Stephen M. Buhler, Department of English, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

"An ideal addition to my syllabus; I regularly teach this play owing to my current students' interest in business and management. Also, in my own work, I follow 19th century readers of Timon, most especially Karl Marx who quotes from it at length in his notes in Capital, Volume 1. I applaud the volume editor, Douglas Lanier, for his care in glossing and also for making connections (below the line) to other works by Shakespeare—which makes a good case for considering Timon as being more central to the overall Shakespeare canon than previously assumed (and notwithstanding Middleton's role in this play as well as in, of course, Macbeth). This is a handy and inexpensive edition that my students will enjoy using."
—William Engel, Sewanee: The University of the South

From the Publisher