Timon of Athens

'The moon's an arrant thief, And her pale fire she snatches from the sun.' How should society treat its bankrupts? What are the ethics of debt collection? What does it mean to be rich, to be poor? And can you ever really buy friendship? In Timon of Athens, Shakespeare and Middleton pose these and other questions as they chart the dramatic downfall of an Athenian nobleman, exposing the corrosive effects of money and status. At once a critique of wealth inequality and a meditation on the fragility of human bonds, the play presents Timon as one of the playwright's most puzzling and enigmatic creations. In her introduction, Sophie Battell connects early modern debates on usury to the continuing reverberations of the recent financial crisis and global recession. The New Oxford Shakespeare offers authoritative editions of Shakespeare's works with introductory materials designed to encourage new interpretations of the plays and poems. Using the text from the landmark The New Oxford Shakespeare Complete Works: Modern Critical Edition, these volumes offer readers the latest thinking on the authentic texts (collated from all surviving original versions of Shakespeare's work) alongside innovative introductions from leading scholars. The texts are accompanied by a comprehensive set of critical apparatus to give readers the best resources to help understand and enjoy Shakespeare's work. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

SOPHIE BATTELL is the author of On the Threshold: Hospitality in Shakespeare's Drama (2023). She received her PhD from Cardiff University, and has taught at the Universities of Exeter and Zurich. More recently, she has worked at the University of Oxford as research assistant on the Arden Shakespeare Fourth Series. Her current project is on the literary and cultural significance of the Sun in early modern England. GARY TAYLOR is Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor at Florida State University. He is a General Editor of The New Oxford Shakespeare and has written, edited, and co-edited numerous other volumes including Reinventing Shakespeare (1989), The Oxford Handbook of Thomas Middleton (2012), and Textual Genealogies and Shakespeare's History Plays (2025). He general-edited the Signs of Race and History of Text Technologies series, founded the interdisciplinary History of Text Technologies program at FSU in 2006, and has written about the practice and theory of editing in various periods and genres. Taylor has also worked to communicate contemporary literary theory and criticism to a mass audience in newspapers, radio, TV, museums and theatres in North America and Europe. Francis X. Connor is Associate Professor of English at Wichita State University, where he teaches courses in Shakespeare, Early Modern Literature, and the history of the book. An associate editor for the New Oxford Shakespeare, he is the author of Literary Folios and Ideas of the Book in Early Modern England (2014), and his work has appeared in Shakespeare Survey, PBSA, Sidney Journal, and elsewhere.