> Skip to content
  • Published: 22 July 2025
  • ISBN: 9780241726976
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 960
  • RRP: $55.00

Four Tragedies

Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth





Shakespeare's four greatest tragedies – Macbeth, King Lear, Hamlet and Othello – in a stunning Penguin Clothbound Classics edition

The theme of the great Shakespearean tragedies is a hero's fall from grace due to a fatal character flaw. Whether it is the ruthless ambition of Macbeth or the folly of Lear, the irresolution of Hamlet or the suspicion of Othello, the cause of the tragedy – even when it is the murder of a king – is trifling compared to the calamity that it unleashes. Despite their flawed natures, however, the tragic protagonists all have a nobility that emphasizes the greatness of humanity. From this paradox the audience is brought to a greater understanding of – and sympathy with – suffering.

The four tragedies in this collection are accompanied by notes and an introduction to each text.

  • Published: 22 July 2025
  • ISBN: 9780241726976
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 960
  • RRP: $55.00

Other books in the series

Emma
Persuasion
The Black Tulip
The Lady of the Camellias
On Sparta
Love
Annals
Military Dispatches

Also by William Shakespeare

See all
penguin pop image
penguin pop image