King Lear

Shakespeare, William. King Lear. 2007. 215p. ISBN 0-300-12200-4. Available at 822.3 SHA on the library shelves.

Slowly descending into madness, Lear, King of Britain, decides to split his kingdom into three pieces, one for each of his daughters. As a price, however, he asks them to describe in glowing terms why they love him most. HIs two oldest daughters readily participates, but Cordelia, the youngest one, honestly replies that words alone cannot express how much she loves him. Enraged at what Lear perceives to be her lack of enthusiasm, he disinherits her, and grants her part to her two older sisters. The Duke of Kent opposes this move by Lear, so the King banishes him as well. Despite having lost her inheritance, Cordelia marries the King of France, who appreciates her honesty.

Lear then decide to live with his two daughters, alternating between one and the other. However, he brings with him a hundred knights which each must support while they are there, incurring significant expenses. Both daughters do not really love their father but consider him a old fool. Forced to disband his knights, Lear soon find himself alone with his Fool and the Duke of Kent, who has returned from exile and disguised himself as a servant to protect his King. Powerless against the daughters who have now turned against him, Lear looks to a French invasion to restore him to his throne.

His daughters have other plans, however, and they discover the plot against them. They assemble their armies and march on. Following the confrontation, the two sisters are victorious against Cordelia, but not without much bloodshed and double crossing. In the end all three sisters end up dead, and King Lear is left with only his madness before he succumbs to the trials he has lived through.

Shakespeare’s best known tragedy, King Lear remains relevant today for its presentation of greed and madness and for its discussion of the important of nature and reason.

Twelfth Night

Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night. 2008. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive, as well as 822.33 SHA on the library shelves.

Two siblings, twins Viola and Sebastian, are separated when their ship sinks in the Mediterranean. Rescued by a good captain, Viola disguises herself as a man, takes the name Cesario, and joins the service of Duke Orsino. Orsino is madly in love with Olivia, who still mourns the death of her father and brother, has sworn she would not have any relationships with men for seven years, so Duke Orsino’s pleas of love fall on deaf ears. She is intrigued by Cesario, however, whom she finds weirdly attractive. At the same time, Viola herself becomes infatuated with Orsino, creating an unrequited love triangle.

Meanwhile, Sebastian was himself rescued by a thief named Antonio. Wanted by Duke Orsino, Antonio falls madly in love with Sebastian. When Sebastian meets Olivia, she mistakens him for Cesario, and they soon marry. When Sebastian is reunited with Viola, both Duke Orsino and Olivia are confused, as there are now two Cesarios. Identities are soon unraveled and Viola and Orsino are soon married.

Considered by many to be Shakespeare’s best comedy, Twelfth Night hilariously examines what happens when cases of mistaken identities collide with love stories.

The Disappearances

Murphy, Emily Bain. The Disappearances. 2017. 400p. ISBN 978-0-544-87936-2. Available as an eBook from Overdrive.

It is 1942, and fifteen-year old Aila Quinn’s mother, Juliet, has just died, and her father has just been drafted by the U.S. Navy to fight in the war. With no other relatives in the small town of Gardner, Connecticut, Aila and her younger brother Myles are sent to live with Mathilda and Malcolm Cliffton in another small town called Sterling a few hours away by train. Mathilda was Juliet’s best friend when they were growing up, and Aila vaguely recalls her coming to visit them when she was four with her son Will. Present at the funeral, she volunteered to house the children while their father was away.

Pulled away from everything, Aila is resentful of her mother’s death and her departure from everything she knows. Wanting a souvenir from her mother, she takes her old copy of Shakespeare’s complete works and discovers a ring and a message addressed to Stefen and hidden in the book. In the message Juliet tells Stefen she loves him. Aila has never heard of Stefen, but her mother always kept her childhood a secret.

Arriving in Sterling, Aila quickly discovers that all is not well. The town, along with two other villages, have lost several ordinary things present everywhere else. Titled the Disappearances, these elements have vanished one at a time, every seven years, over the last thirty five years. There are no smells in Sterling. No vivid colors. No stars in the sky. No dreams. No reflections in mirrors. And the next Disappearance is coming soon. The people of Sterling have developed variants, dust that can temporarily alleviate these missing things, but for the most part they do without.

The disappearances began on the day that Juliet was born, and she is known as a catalyst. Aila quickly realizes that the people in town feared and hated Juliet, for she was the only one who regained a Disappearance when she left the town. As Aila begins to investigate this mystery, she discovers that the Disappearances appear related to Shakespeare’s plays, and her mother had taken extensive notes in her book. The more she digs, however, the more she discovers information about her mother she did not know. She also begins to fall for handsome Will, who likes her as well.

But a powerful actor is bent on insuring that no one solves the Disappearances, for there is profit to be made selling variants. With the next Disappearance fast approaching, can Aila navigates small town politics and enemies before it is too late?