Richard II

Note upfront: I’m far from being qualified to say anything smart or deep about this literary work. Therefore, I’ll only discuss what I thought about it whilst reading it. Also, my review is going to be biased since two weeks prior to reading I went to a performance of Richard II in Shakespeare’s Globe which was awesome.

I was a little bit ashamed to admit that history lessons did not spoil this play for me. Admitted, English medieval history isn’t taught at schools where I live and I’m glad just knowing all the English Kings and Queens (and the Dutch ones too, don’t worry), but for me there was some suspense as I didn’t know the outcome all along.

I found my copy on project Gutenborg, which offers all kinds of old works that no longer have copyrights on them as free ebooks. My edition was apparently from the first printed edition, complete with the v’s that were supposed to be u’s and vice versa. However, I found it was still very readable and I enjoyed it a lot.

The story, full of political intrigue and betrayal, was really captivating and I think this play is one of my favourites (of the ones I’ve read so far). I would definitely recommend it.