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Shakespeare & Beyond

Excerpt: Learwife by J. R. Thorp

Picking up where Shakespeare’s King Lear ends, a new novel imagines the life of Lear’s wife, who in this telling has been banished for 15 years when she receives word of her family members’ deaths. Learwife by J.R. Thorp gives voice to a character who is notably absent from Shakespeare’s tragedy, which focuses on the relationships between Lear and his three daughters: Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia.