The King and I

This masterful undertaking manages both to elucidate KING LEAR and to illuminate a singular Australian life. Professor Kelly is equally a brilliant scholar and a deeply self-reflective woman; her willingness to examine her personal narrative alongside the dramatic arc of one of Shakespeare's most tragic figures offers readers a double privilege. With heartwarming and heartbreaking candor, she helps us to understand how it is possible (and exquisitely beneficial) to keep reading and re-reading iconic works of art as a way of discovering and gaining compassion for our own imperfect humanity. "In the end, for human beings, it is relationships that wound us within, it is relationships that comfort and renew us." A truly original and prismatic book.

In this expertly crafted book, Ms. Kelly manages to weave the academic and the personal into a compelling, utterly original and relevant narrative. Kelly writes in a conversational style that is, at turns, whip-smart, self-deprecating, and surprisingly moving - an incredibly inviting narrative voice that is never preachy or distanced from its subjects. In bringing Lear to her personal history, she manages to make both stories leap from the page in a delightful way that gave me more than a few "ah hah!" revelations along the way. On a personal note, this book was just a pleasure to read - so beautifully curated and shared that I savored the pages and was more than a little sad to finish. I wasn't expecting that from an academic discourse, let me tell you...

My husband I read this book while we were on vacation. We are both Shakespeare enthusiasts and got it out at cal shakes in the bookstore. I admit my husband is the more academic of the two of us; I am drawn to the rich language and the passionate stories and he loves the language and big themes. And yet, this book spoke to both of us. While we have seen many different productions of king Lear, it was never as real to me as when told by Philippa Kelly. She weaves the unfolding Lear drama with a retelling of the life of one family in Australia. We finished the book understanding Lear like never before: the parallels drawn between Lear and the author's own life made each story the more real and the piicture of australia itself so vivid and poignant and funny as well. That Aussie humor is delicious and, as with Lear, it makes heartbreak all the more haunting.

If you thought academic studies of Shakespeare's plays were not for you, think again. Philippa Kelly's book is a breath of fresh air in the world of what is known as 'academic discourse'. In an engaging personal voice it intimately details the fascinating relationship between art and life: here, the art of Shakespeare's resonant play, and the life of an acutely intelligent and self-aware scholar who first met it at school in southern Queensland. There is another 'life' examined here too: the political, ethical and cultural life of Australia itself, as interpreted by Philippa Kelly through the prism of King Lear. It is a rich and rewarding book, refreshingly original in conception and utterly absorbing in its account of a journey with King Lear through an Australian life in an Australian landscape.

This masterful undertaking manages both to elucidate KING LEAR and to illuminate a singular Australian life. Professor Kelly is equally a brilliant scholar and a deeply self-reflective woman; her willingness to examine her personal narrative alongside the dramatic arc of one of Shakespeare's most tragic figures offers readers a double privilege. With heartwarming and heartbreaking candor, she helps us to understand how it is possible (and exquisitely beneficial) to keep reading and re-reading iconic works of art as a way of discovering and gaining compassion for our own imperfect humanity. "In the end, for human beings, it is relationships that wound us within, it is relationships that comfort and renew us." A truly original and prismatic book.

In this expertly crafted book, Ms. Kelly manages to weave the academic and the personal into a compelling, utterly original and relevant narrative. Kelly writes in a conversational style that is, at turns, whip-smart, self-deprecating, and surprisingly moving - an incredibly inviting narrative voice that is never preachy or distanced from its subjects. In bringing Lear to her personal history, she manages to make both stories leap from the page in a delightful way that gave me more than a few "ah hah!" revelations along the way. On a personal note, this book was just a pleasure to read - so beautifully curated and shared that I savored the pages and was more than a little sad to finish. I wasn't expecting that from an academic discourse, let me tell you...

My husband I read this book while we were on vacation. We are both Shakespeare enthusiasts and got it out at cal shakes in the bookstore. I admit my husband is the more academic of the two of us; I am drawn to the rich language and the passionate stories and he loves the language and big themes. And yet, this book spoke to both of us. While we have seen many different productions of king Lear, it was never as real to me as when told by Philippa Kelly. She weaves the unfolding Lear drama with a retelling of the life of one family in Australia. We finished the book understanding Lear like never before: the parallels drawn between Lear and the author's own life made each story the more real and the piicture of australia itself so vivid and poignant and funny as well. That Aussie humor is delicious and, as with Lear, it makes heartbreak all the more haunting.

If you thought academic studies of Shakespeare's plays were not for you, think again. Philippa Kelly's book is a breath of fresh air in the world of what is known as 'academic discourse'. In an engaging personal voice it intimately details the fascinating relationship between art and life: here, the art of Shakespeare's resonant play, and the life of an acutely intelligent and self-aware scholar who first met it at school in southern Queensland. There is another 'life' examined here too: the political, ethical and cultural life of Australia itself, as interpreted by Philippa Kelly through the prism of King Lear. It is a rich and rewarding book, refreshingly original in conception and utterly absorbing in its account of a journey with King Lear through an Australian life in an Australian landscape.