{"product_id":"2026100012660-secondhand-richard-ii","title":"Richard Ii","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: No dust jacket\u003cbr\u003ePages: Yellowed\u003cbr\u003eMarkings: Previous owner\u003cbr\u003eCondition remarks: Condition as shown in image\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA king undone by his own pride — Shakespeare's Richard II stands as one of the most psychologically rich and poetically charged of the history plays, chronicling the catastrophic fall of England's Richard II as he is stripped of his crown, his power, and ultimately his sense of self by the ambitious Henry Bolingbroke. Set against the turbulent political landscape of medieval England, the play argues that a king's divine right to rule offers no protection against the cold arithmetic of political power, presenting a monarch whose eloquent self-pity is as mesmerising as it is self-destructive. The central conflict — a clash between legitimacy and capability, between ceremony and force — unfolds with an inevitability that feels both historical and achingly human.\n\nWritten entirely in verse, Richard II illustrates Shakespeare at the height of his lyrical power, saturating every scene with imagery of gardens, sunsets, and the earth itself as a reflection of England's fractured body politic. The play occupies a pivotal place in Shakespeare's second historical tetralogy, setting the stage for the celebrated Henry IV plays and Henry V, and scholars have long regarded it as the playwright's most sustained meditation on the nature of identity and kingship. Its portrait of a man who is a far greater poet than he is a ruler raises a question that lingers long after the final act: can the beauty of words ever be a substitute for the will to lead?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50948326392027,"sku":"2026100012660-SECONDHAND","price":10.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/c7675f8b-2290-43a0-81d8-1e271ecb9127.png?v=1793104747","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026100012660-secondhand-richard-ii","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}