Richard III

Deformed, brilliant, and utterly without conscience, Richard of Gloucester schemes his way to the English crown across the bodies of everyone who stands between him and the throne. Shakespeare hands him one of the great opening speeches in the language, “Now is the winter of our discontent,” and lets him confide his plots straight to the audience, making us complicit in murders that include his own brother, his young nephews, and eventually his wife. The play closes the cycle of the Wars of the Roses on Bosworth Field, where Richard’s crimes finally run him down. Part history, part study of a charismatic tyrant, it stays one of the most performed and quoted works in the canon. This free edition is available as a PDF and EPUB.