The Lion in Winter: A Play

I saw the peter o toole version of this before purchase and years later I knew I had to have a copy. The author is hilarious. Almost every line is comedic and could stand alone but the whole play is award worthy. After I finished reading the play I almost wanted to find people to do a reading sitting around the table, it's that good. I wish I could get copies of the other plays he has written but they're hard to come by. Don't bother watching the Hallmark version, it's not the same as the Katherine Hepburn version. All the greats are in it. Anthony Hopkins, David Castle etc.

"Lion In Winter" is my favorite movie...wanted to read the foundation....brilliant!...most of the text is word-for-word in the movie (1968)...It was nice to be able to catch a line and re-read it to get full meaning instead of backing up the dvd...highly recommend!!!

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 worst cover I have ever seen on a script -- so bad that I have plastered it all over Facebook as exactly what you don't do with a script....BUT...the typeface and the impression is very good -- far superior to the poor typeface of the Samuel French acting edition...but still that cover, whoa...

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 , this play is a benchmark of language, please read it and then watch the movie with Peter otoole and Katherine Hepburn . Enjoy the experience.

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 equal role' of women in royal history. Goldman knows how to enlist the power of words to do his bidding. His command of language makes reading the play a delight, even without the added power of actors playing their roles. Jim Dunne

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 BINDING WAS FRAGILE AND BRITTLE, AND THE PAGES WOULD BREAK WHEN TURNING THEM. IT WAS A GOOD BUY, HOWEVER. HELEN I. LENTI

As ll Good. Transaction-condition-quick ship And, of course, the book’s exquisite.

This is an excellent play -- a classic -- and well worth the enjoyable read. We have a group that meets monthly to read plays aloud, and it was fun to read this one which so many of us had seen as a movie but few had read as a play. Excellent!

several hugely quotable passages in this brilliant play eg Eleanor of Aquitaine --Of course he has a knife. He always has a knife. We all have knives. it is eleven eighty-three and we're barbarians. How clear we make it. Oh, my piglets, we're the origins of war. Not history's forces nor the times nor justice nor the lack of it nor causes nor religions nor ideas nor kinds of government nor any other thing. We are the killers : we breed war. We carry it, like syphilis, inside.

A fine play. The success of this play rests on the text which is high quality. It is written as a dramatic comedy; Eleanor has some great witticisms and Henry has plenty of biting sarcasm. Theirs is a love/hate relationship navigating the political ambitions of their three sons, Richard, Geoffrey and John. Philip, the King of France, has his demands; as does Alais, Henry's mistress! I have seen a production and I remember being enthralled. Read and enjoy.

Really enjoyed it

A most excellent play and a brilliant film. So many memorable quotations.