Richard of Gloucester murders his way to the crown while telling the audience exactly what he’s doing and daring us to enjoy it — which, uncomfortably, we do. The wooing of Lady Anne over a coffin remains one of the most audacious scenes ever written.
It is long, and it rewards knowing the Henry VI plays (Margaret’s curses land harder when you’ve seen what she’s lost), but it stands alone perfectly well as the canon’s definitive study of charismatic evil.
Which edition?
1Arden Shakespeare, Third Series
Ed. James R. Siemon · Bloomsbury
Siemon is the best modern editor on how the play’s language seduces you.
2Oxford World’s Classics
Ed. John Jowett · Oxford University Press
Jowett is the textual authority, and unusually readable about it.
3Folger Shakespeare LibraryFirst read? Start here
Ed. Barbara Mowat & Paul Werstine · Simon & Schuster
The play is a performance; this is the edition that lets you enjoy it as one.
4The New Cambridge Shakespeare
Ed. Janis Lull · Cambridge University Press
Lull’s is the compact scholarly Richard, strong on the play’s women.
Richard III on stage
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Richard III on screen
1Richard III (1955)
Film · dir. Laurence Olivier
2Richard III (1995)
Film · dir. Richard Loncraine
3The Hollow Crown: Richard III (2016)
TV film · dir. Dominic Cooke
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Reading Richard III this year?
Mark it in your record when you finish — one seat, kept for decades.