The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606

Preeminent Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro, author of Shakespeare in a Divided America, shows how the tumultuous events in 1606 influenced three of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies written that year-King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra. "The Year of Lear is irresistible-a banquet of wisdom" (The New York Times Book Review).

In 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 ha...