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The Lion in Winter: A Play Paperback – December 14, 2004

by James Goldman (Author)

26 customer reviews

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Insecure siblings fighting for their parents’ attention; bickering spouses who can’t stand to be together or apart; adultery and sexual experimentation; even the struggle to balance work and family: These are themes as much at home in our time as they were in the twelfth century. In James Goldman’s classic play The Lion in Winter, domestic turmoil rises to an art form.
Keenly self-aware and motivated as much by spite as by any sense of duty, Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine maneuver against each other to position their favorite son in line for succession. By imagining the inner lives of Henry, Eleanor, and their sons, John, Geoffrey, and Richard, Goldman created the quintessential drama of family strife and competing ambitions, a work that gives visceral, modern-day relevance to the intrigues of Angevin England.
Combining keen historical and psychological insight with delicious, mordant wit, the stage play has become a touchstone of today’s theater scene, and Goldman’s screenplay for the 1968 film adaptation won him an Academy Award. Told in “marvelously articulate language, with humor that bristles and burns” (Los Angeles Times), The Lion in Winter is the rare play that bursts into life on the printed page.

The Lion in Winter: A Play

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Product Details

Paperback: 128 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks (December 14, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9780812973358
ISBN-13: 978-0812973358
ASIN: 0812973356
Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.3 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #87,997 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #158 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Dramas & Plays > Regional & Cultural > United States
- #15340 in Books > Literature & Fiction > United States

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Customer Reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars

5 star		77%
4 star		11%
3 star		8%
2 star		0%
1 star		4%

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful

The Modern Middle Ages

By Kellyannl on April 24, 2002

Format: Paperback

This play about the famously disfunctional family of England's Henry II is perhaps the most devestating family drama this side of "Long Day's Journey into Night".
For those who want a real epic, it can - but doesn't have to - be read as a sequel to Jean Anoilh's "Becket". Personally I found that this adds to the tragedy.
It opens during a fictional family Christmas get together that is combined with a historical meeting between Henry and France's young King Phillip. Henry's persistent humiliation of his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, through his string of mistresses has prompted her to hurt him in the only way available to her - by systematically destroying his relationships with their sons. Now Henry - although not old yet - is no longer a young man. The fact that a potentially dangerous Phillip - who has a legitimate axe to grind with Henry - is no longer a child forces them to realize that their familial intrigues have set their boys up for both internal and external disaster upon Henry's death. They make a real effort to save both their shattered marriage and their shattered children, but it may already be too late ...
The main tragedy, of course, is what Henry and Eleanor have done to their children. Richard is admirably brave but has had much of his compassion beaten out of him and replaced with brutality.Read more ›

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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

Royalty at its best.......

By Dudley Ristow on April 12, 2000

Format: Hardcover

King Henry the Second releashes his jailed wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, for the Xmas holidays. The two come together with their three sons, the King's mistress and her brother, Philip of France, to discuss the succession to the throne, the marriage of the mistress to the King's successor and the annexation of a rich French province to the English Crown. The thrill of the play is entirely in the words - marvellous in their scope and cutting in their execution. Scenes of sex or violence would have been superfluous - the verbal assassinations, particularly between the King and his estranged queen, take you to the grit of life itself. Do yourself a favour and rent the video - Katherine Hepburn and Peter O"Toole, and a very young Anthony Hopkins as the sexually confused Richard the Lion Heart, make for incredibly fine viewing. My all-time favourite play.

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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful

What an absolute JOY to read such biting dialog.

By DONALD G. FOX on December 8, 2003

Format: Paperback

I just bought a new copy of this play and I am so very, very happy that I did. I dashed through it and then reread my favorite parts. I hadn't read it in many years, but my respect has really grown for the playwright's wit and imagination. What an absolutely wonderful play. Of course, I love the film, but it was great fun to see how the play moves rapidly and the dialog is so biting and bitter at times. I agree with all the reviewers. Buy this play because it is a classic play with ripping dialog.

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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

My favorite play!

By jadams@indy.net on July 26, 1998

Format: Paperback

The Lion in Winter is by far my favorite play. It is jammed packed full of dry humor and funny lines. Every person that I have introduced to the Lion in Winter has also loved it, so buy your copy today! "I know, I know you know, I know you know I know, we know Henry knows, and Henry knows we know it. We're a knowledgeable family."

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

A Great Play - A Poor Edition

By CB on September 2, 2009

Format: Paperback

I very much enjoy Lion in Winter and wanted to read the play for myself; I found it to be a complex delight, telling a tale of family strife, of love lost and sought, of relationships sundered, fixed, and sundered again - all in the late-12th century England of Henry Plantagenet. At only 103 pages, it is a brisk read (I read it in about 90 minutes) but in those pages is a host of wonderfully wrought language, excellent quips and postmodern fun; the play is a classic, by turns witty, humorous, and heartbreaking.

The reason I gave Lion in Winter three stars, therefore, is not because there is anything wrong with the play, but because of this particular edition of it. Random House, unfortunately, saw fit to print this book on very flimsy paper stock (flimsier than the run-of-the-mill paperback stock you see), and the cover is little better. I'm rather concerned that this book is going to deteriorate long before its time - it is very flimsy and floppy, and not quite worth the price I paid for it. If you have a desire to read Lion in Winter, I recommend you seek out a sturdier edition of the play to enjoy.

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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

One of the best plays I've seen!

By A Customer on August 7, 1999

Format: Paperback

I just spent my 9th year seeing plays at the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City and we saw this play there. It was WONDERFUL! It was extremely funny and also a little sad. It gave new meaning to the phrase "disfunctional family". I can't wait to rent the movie...I love Hepburn.

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They talk like angels

By Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban on July 30, 2010

Format: Paperback

The Lion in Winter was written by James Goodman in 1966 as a play that was later made into a film starring Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn as Henry and Eleanor.

Henry is Henry II the first Plantagenet King. Eleanor, Eleanor of Aquitaine, his queen who was before queen of France when she married Louis, the French king at age fifteen. Her first marriage was annulled when, at twenty-seven, she left her boorish husband for an eighteen year old boy who only three years later became king of England by the sword.

In 1183 when the play takes place, Henry is fifty years old, "an age at which in this time," the author reminds us, "men were either old or dead." Henry may be 50 but he is either. He is in love once more and, for the first time, he wants peace.

Alas, this love will bring him no peace as the lady he loves is Alais, half sister to Philip, the young French king. Alais was brought to Henry's court sixteen years ago, when she was a child ("You were seven," Henry tells her. "Two big knees and two big eyes and that's all.") as the future bride to Henry's son Richard. The marriage never happened, and now Philip has come to see Henry and ask of him either the marriage or the dowry, a piece of land North of Paris of strategic significance.

But Henry fights his demands. He has survived too many battles to give in now. Among them, the one his own sons staged against him encouraged by Eleanor who wanted revenge on her husband for falling in love with Rosemund. Now Rosemund is long dead and Eleanor has spent the last ten years a prisoner in one of their castles. Allowed to join the court this Christmas, she once again will plot against Henry, as will their sons to get the king's favor and be the next king.Read more ›

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Don't miss this

Simply brilliant and illuminating, everyone is by degrees likeable and not, that is they are human. The sheer depth and breadth of human observation and interaction is a marvel ,... Read more

Published 18 days ago by Mark Jamieson

Always loved this LION IN WINTER

Always loved this LION IN WINTER. I suggest watch movie first ..with Peter O'Toole and Kathrine Hepburn.
One ends up wanting to remember all lines... Read more

Published 3 months ago by homer

classic

This book has lines in at as good and quotable as Shakespeare.

Published 5 months ago by Tribblejuice

Great film and play entertainment wise, but total Fantasy.

This is an excellent play and the renowned film was even better, provided that the audience knows that it is a complete fantasy. Read more

Published 9 months ago by Chicot le Fou

WONDERFUL! I LOVE THIS STORY

WONDERFUL ! I LOVE THIS STORY, SINCE I AM AN AVID FAN OF ENGLISH HISTORY/ROYALTY. HOWEVER, THE BOOK WAS IN BAD SHAPE, AND I HAD TO BE CAREFUL WHEN TURNING THE PAGES, BECAUSE THE... Read more

Published 10 months ago by Helen I. Lenti

but the movie is better.

OK, but the movie is better.

Published 12 months ago by Pegasus West

Worst cover art of a play ever...but a great impression of the script

Very good impression of the book with a TERRIBLE cover -- at no point in this play is there ever a younger man and a younger woman in the throes of passion -- it is seriously the... Read more

Published 15 months ago by RonAnnArbor

what a beautiful looking cover

it's hard cover and looks incredibly sexy on your shelf. great quality. almost don't want to actually open it up and read it simply because i don't want to damage it. Read more

Published on October 30, 2013 by Ryan of the East Coast

Marvelous said Katharine Hepburn

Fascinating play. Great movies. Great and taut read. I bought this to prepare to audition for a local amateur theatre production. Read more

Published on June 16, 2013 by sabledachshund

"What's past is prologue"

Goldman's script is stylish, graceful, acutely mindful of that time in history, witty, ironic, melancholy and moves the 'story' of the play forward, taking note of the 'less than... Read more

Published on April 19, 2013 by jim Dunne

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