I first read King Lear back in high school and I've always claimed it to be my favorite Shakespeare play, but recently I remembered that I didn't actually read the play in high school, I only read the Cliff Notes. Now, let me be clear: I was a good high school student and usually did all of the reading. I was, in fact, the only person in my class to actually read "Great Expectations" all the way through. Everyone else claimed the book's surprises were "obvious" and said I was dumb if I couldn't have guessed them, and I was pretty annoyed when I found out that no one else actually read the book. Of course the surprises are obvious if you read a summary of them in the beginning of the Cliff Notes! Anyway, my point is, I finally got around to actually reading "King Lear," and, lo and behold, it has been upheld as my favorite Shakespeare play. The ending is a bit anticlimactic, mainly because a lot of the exciting stuff (a battle between France and England) happens off stage, but back in Will's day there weren't special effects.
I've always been a bit conflicted about Shakespeare. Sure, he's the greatest writer who ever lived, but ever since having read "Merchant of Venice" I sort of look at him in a different way. "Merchant of Venice" is anti-Semitic. And I don't just mean anti-Semitic. Considering this is Shakespeare, it's the greatest (or worst, depending on how you want to phrase it) piece of anti-Semitic writing in the history of the English language. "King Lear" is probably one of the greatest pieces of anti-bastard writing in the history of the English language, but, to be honest, I don't care as much about bastards as I do about Semitics.
