Dunbar: William Shakespeare's King Lear Retold: A Novel (Hogarth Shakespeare) Hardcover – October 3, 2017

The book was advertised as new and it came unused. As to the quality off the book itself, it is King Lear in a modern setting, complete with horrific behavior by the "King's" family. A good story told well.

If someone held a gun to my head and forced me to choose one favorite Shakespeare play, it would be King Lear. I saw my first production when I was seventeen, and I have never ceased to be awed by the raw power of its imagery, the range of emotions, and the perfection of Shakespeare's language. It is an ancient, pre-Christian world where the laws of nature rule, and the consequences are dire when the natural order is disturbed.St. Aubyn captures much of this in a fairly short work (260 pages). Dunbar/Lear is portrayed in all his arrogant petulance and rage, driven by his need for power, and his ultimate redemption by the insight gained through his suffering. Our beloved loyal Kent/Wilson and Fool/Peter are here as are most of the characters we know so well. The storm scene is lengthy and very well done.What is most interesting to me is St Aubyn's treatment of the daughters. In the play, they are pretty much black and white-Goneril/Abigail and Regan/Megan are conniving, greedy, power hungry, and faithless; Cordelia is innocent, loving and loyal. St. Aubyn fleshes out their characters with backstories and is especially effective with Florence/Cordelia; she is intelligent, insightful, and resourceful in foiling her sisters' plots.I enjoyed this very much, and I hope it may encourage readers unfamiliar with the Shakespeare play to read it or, better yet, to see a production live or on film. I would also recommend it to friends, especially young people who think Shakespeare is too difficult or unapproachable.

Part of the magic of the tale of King Lear is that it was written those many centuries ago, so that our imaginations are free to roam. In this version, Dunbar too closely resembles a number of contemporary individuals for me to not keep on thinking that they were being portrayed here. What goes wrong in this version are the settings; the slipping in and out of the real then all of a sudden placing fictitious alongside them. This is particularly noticeable when the action takes place in the English Lake District, when Dunbar, goes AWOL from his care home. His ordeals, those of an 80 yr old, are exaggerated and become incredible to the point that I began to loose interest. There is humour but it's pretty black. But then I suppose so too is Lear.

A great writer takes on an interesting task and perform the job with superb outcome. He brings the power of his craft to this project Which is both different from the Patrick Melrose novels but not without parallels.

This is the sixth book in the Hogarth Shakespeare series that I have read. It is a retelling of [book:King Lear|12938].It is many years since I read King Lear and it never was one of my favourites out of Shakespeare's plays. However Edward St Aubyn does a good job of making it into a very readable book. Really he takes the bare bones of the original and builds his own story but there are enough similarities in the action and in the characters to see where his ideas came from.One unexpected delight was the humour. Dunbar's fellow inmate, Peter, is very funny as is their rackety escape from the institution they find themselves in. It is also quite a short book which seemed to finish almost as soon as it had begun. However having just finished a row of lengthy tomes, one of which bored my socks off, I was very happy with something short, sharp and snappy.If you enjoy this kind of retelling of classics then try this series. It is excellent.

Given contemporary dress, Shakespeare's "Lear" is retold as a modern tale that engages and compels with its contemporary staging, intrigues with how it unfolds the "Lear" story line, and ultimately raises the same questions and conundrums as the original - issues of aging, filial devotion, sibling rivalries, and how to go gracefully and with dignity into that great goodnight.

This was the first in this ‘Shakespeare’ series that I read, I’m hooked! Have ordered the others and can’t wait to see how other authors have dealt with their stories. What an inspired idea.

A great read. Keeps you on your feet and wants you to come back to the book to know what’s going to happen next.

Hard work but an interesting concept

Satire of Murdochian capitalism effected with wit and vim although the density of high finance jargon eventually proved somewhat tiresome.

Teils genial (zB Zitate, Charaktereigenschaften, Verfremdungen), teil flapsig und langwierig.Ingesamt kommt mir zu wenig von der Atmosphäre des Klassikers rüber. Die Dunbar-Story ist flacher.Trotzdem eine interessante Alternative und möglicherweise ein moderner Ansatz an Shakespeare heranzuführen.