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King Lear

From Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by E. Nesbit (1907)

This reader is adapted from E. Nesbit's 1907 retelling of Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear. Edith Nesbit, best known for The Railway Children, also rendered Shakespeare's great plays into prose for young readers, preserving the essential story and many of the memorable lines. The play, written around 1606, explores the devastating consequences of pride, flattery, and the failure to recognise true love. King Lear remains one of Shakespeare's most powerful examinations of family, authority, and the difference between appearance and reality. This text reflects its era.

Band

Blue · Independent readers, confidentTypical starting range: ages 12–14

Length

long · about 1052 words in 5 sections · 2 pictures

Source

Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare, E. Nesbit and William Shakespeare

First published

1907

Regions

Canada · United States

Included formats

• · Web reader and PDF
• · EPUB for e-readers
• · Home-print sheet
• · Folded booklet
• · Binder edition (8.5 × 11)
• · Worksheet
• · Quick Check (10 questions) with answer key
• · Read-aloud script
• · Teacher’s Edition (members)

Readers are engineered from the original public-domain text with AI under HummingRead’s published canon and Content Philosophy, checked by automated audit and sampled by a person. Pictures are made with AI to HummingRead’s brief for each story. How a reader is made.

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