I didn't think King Lear was really that bad. But then again, we had to read a lot of stinkers at my school like: Children of the River, Metamorphosis, Tess of the D'Urbevilles, Metamorphosis, Kokoro, Oedipus Rex, Macbeth, Farewell to Arms, Scarlett Letter, etc.
I think I would rank them as far as best reads:
1. Candide
2. Animal Farm
3. To Kill a Mockingbird
4. Tale of Two Cities (although I couldn't really fully appreciate it freshman year)
5. Death of a Salesman
JMO though.
Also, I have an essay for King Lear on Vision/Blindness. It is grammatically perfect since my teacher makes us do rewrites where we have to fix everything we did wrong (she goes through our original copies meticulously, and marks everything that needs to be fixed). I could sell it to you for a small fee.