{"product_id":"lears-other-shadow-thomas-g-olsen-9781644533550","title":"Lear's Other Shadow: A Cultural History of Queen Lear","description":"\u003ci\u003eLear's Other Shadow: A Cultural History of Queen Lear\u003c\/i\u003e offers a deep cultural analysis of the figure of Queen Lear, who shadows and eventually sometimes overshadows her royal husband across the nearly one-thousand-year life of this archetypal tale. What appears to be a deliberate strategy of suppression, even erasure in Shakespeare's \u003ci\u003eKing Lear\u003c\/i\u003e later inspired dozens of stage, page, and cinematic remakes and adaptations in which this figure is revived or remembered, often pointedly so. From Jacob Gordin's Yiddish-language \u003ci\u003eMiriele Efros\u003c\/i\u003e (1898), through edgy stage remakes such as Gordon Bottomley's \u003ci\u003eKing Lear's Wife \u003c\/i\u003e(1915) and the Women's Theatre Group's \u003ci\u003eLear's Daughters\u003c\/i\u003e (1987), to novelized retellings from Jane Smiley's \u003ci\u003eA Thousand Acres\u003c\/i\u003e (1991) to Preti Taneja's \u003ci\u003eWe That Are Young \u003c\/i\u003e(2018) and J. R. Thorp's \u003ci\u003eLearwife\u003c\/i\u003e (2021), and even the television series \u003ci\u003eEmpire\u003c\/i\u003e (2015-2020) and \u003ci\u003eSuccession \u003c\/i\u003e(2018-2023), Queen Lear regularly emerges from her shadowy origins to challenge how we understand the ancient King Leir\/King Lear story. These and many other examples reveal fascinating patterns of adaptation and reinterpretation that \u003ci\u003eLear's Other Shadow\u003c\/i\u003e identifies and analyzes for the first time, showing how and why Queen Lear is at the center of this ancient story, whether she is heard from or not.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Thomas G. Olsen\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1644533553\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781644533550\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Delaware Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/11\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 260\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback","brand":"Thomas G. Olsen","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46465662157055,"sku":"9781644533550","price":34.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_7129209f-e7bd-44d4-813f-9bb6c63405af.jpg?v=1736346915","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/lears-other-shadow-thomas-g-olsen-9781644533550","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}