Timon of Athens

The real Timon of Athens lived there in the fifth century BCE, making him a contemporary of Socrates and Pericles.

Shakespeare presents Timon as a figure who suffers such profound disillusionment that he becomes a misanthrope, or man-hater.

This makes him a more interesting character than the caricature he had become to Shakespeares contemporaries, for whom Timonist was a slang term for an unsociable man.

Shakespeares play includes the wealthy, magnificent, and extravagantly generous figure of Timon before his transformation.

Timon expects that, having received as gifts all that he owned, his friends will be equally generous to him.

Once his creditors clamor for repayment, Timon finds that his idealization of friendship is an illusion.

He repudiates his friends, abandons Athens, and retreats to the woods.

Yet his misanthropy arises from the destruction of an admirable illusion, from which his subsequent hatred can never be entirely disentangled.

The authoritative edition of Timon of Athens from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers, includes: -Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play -Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play -Scene-by-scene plot summaries -A key to the plays famous lines and phrases -An introduction to reading Shakespeares language -An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play -Fresh images from the Folger Shakespeare Librarys vast holdings of rare books -An annotated guide to further reading Essay by Copplia Kahn The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is home to the worlds largest collection of Shakespeares printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe.

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