Some Facets of King Lear: Essays in Prismatic Criticism

The image of the prism, with its multiple refractions, offers some sense of the inexhaustible variety of a work of art. Like a prism, King Lear is attractive; like a prism, it is a multiply shaped thing; like a prism, it is an object of admiration, as well as an instrument of analysis.

The essays in this book – forming neither a casebook nor a 'perplex' – were written because their authors wanted to understand something specific about this very complicated play. Throughout, the emphasis is ...