William Shakespeare
Folger Shakespeare Library · 1993
For almost everyone, the Folger is the right King Lear — glosses on the facing page so you keep your footing through some of Shakespeare's hardest verse, plus scene-by-scene synopses. Cheap, and the classroom standard. (Lear survives in two early texts, Quarto and Folio; the Folger gives a conflated reading text.) This is where I'd start.
Arden (3rd series) · 1997
The Arden Third Series, edited by R. A. Foakes, is the scholar's Lear — a major introduction and dense footnotes, and notably it confronts the Quarto/Folio two-text problem head-on. Indispensable for study; heavier than a first read needs.
Oxford Shakespeare · 2000
Oxford's single-volume edition is the strong middle — serious scholarship and a fine introduction at a paperback price.
No Fear Shakespeare · 2003
No Fear sets the original beside a plain modern paraphrase. You lose the poetry — and Lear's is towering — so treat the modern side as a helper. But if the language has defeated you before, it can carry you through.
Free (public domain) · 1623
King Lear is public domain, so the full text is free — Folger Digital Texts, MIT, Gutenberg. No glosses for the hard lines, but it's the whole play at no cost.
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