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The Tempest is thought by many to be Shakespeare's greatest and most perfect play. When the magician Prospero deliberately summons a storm to overcome his enemy King Alonso of Naples ship the passengers are washed ashore on a fantastical island. Prospero manipulates the king, his entourage, apparitions and fiends as he schemes revenge on the hapless Alonso. Prospero's daughter and the King's son Ferdinand fall in love and their fraught lover provides the catalyst for their fathers' reconciliation, contrition and clemency.
Anonymous user: A musical spin-off worth reading/hearing. If you can, read the score. If you can't, check any of the available recordings (Abbado, Fistoulari, Pletnev, Jarvi, Litton, Stokowski, Toscanini).
Anonymous user: A literary spin-off that surpasses the original. A rare case indeed! What Will started 400 years ago, Wystan finished in the last century: he turned the cardboard stereotypes into real characters.
JuliaMaria: In der Einleitung zu "an unofficial rose" von Iris Murdoch schreibt Anthony D. Nuttal: "But this book is really much more Shakespearen than it is Dickensian, The Tempest, which will figure so prominently in The Sea, The Sea, is powerfully though less obtrusively operative in this earlier book."… (more)
I’ve seen this live at the Globe, too, and while I greatly appreciated and enjoyed the company’s production I didn’t think too much of this play. Reading it now, my opinion hasn’t changed. A fine idea for a fantasy/comedy sort of in the vein of Midsummer Night’s Dream where a few different parties get up to shenanigans while stranded on an island. The Globe version wrung a lot of humor out of the text where I can’t see it while reading. That energy would’ve helped here, since I got nothing out of the romance plot between Ferdinand and Miranda, and I got nothing out of the revenge plot between Prospero and Antonio. Antonio deserved a worse fate than he got! ( )
Shakespeare's Tempest was his final masterpiece. It is magical to me, both when I read about it and see live productions. Some of Shakespeare's greatest characters can be found in this play. ( )
Shakespeare is always a difficult to review, simply because going back and forth between the annotation makes pulls one out of the story, but to get the greatest understanding, they are important. I think these are plays that require more than one reading to fully understand.
As for the Tempest, I found it to be a be a bit - overdone. Prospero and his granddaughter, Miranda, are exiled to an empty island, where he learns secret magical arts of binding spirits. A number of years later, he uses these arts to bring his nemesis and their sons to the island, where after a few pranks and punishment, Miranda and Ferdinand are engaged to each other and all is well. ( )
For the 400th anniversary of the publication of Shakespeare's First Folio, I thought I would read one of the plays in it which, but for its publication, would have been lost to us. While a performance of this play (though I have never seen one) contains some strong imagery, I don't think this worked as a playscript. After a strong start in Act 1 with the shipwreck, and Prospero's backstory conversation with Miranda, I thought it meandered after that and I didn't enjoy it much. ( )
At the maindeck of a ship at sea, near an unknown island.
Quotations
I would fain die a dry death.
Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground.
Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made; Those are pearls that were his eyes: Nothing of him that doth fade But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange.
Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me From mine own library with volumes that I prize above my dukedom.
This work is for the complete The Tempest only. Do not combine this work with abridgements, adaptations or simplifications (such as "Shakespeare Made Easy"), Cliffs Notes or similar study guides, or anything else that does not contain the full text. Do not include any video recordings. Additionally, do not combine this with other plays.
The Tempest is thought by many to be Shakespeare's greatest and most perfect play. When the magician Prospero deliberately summons a storm to overcome his enemy King Alonso of Naples ship the passengers are washed ashore on a fantastical island. Prospero manipulates the king, his entourage, apparitions and fiends as he schemes revenge on the hapless Alonso. Prospero's daughter and the King's son Ferdinand fall in love and their fraught lover provides the catalyst for their fathers' reconciliation, contrition and clemency.
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BBC R4 In Our Time: The Tempest
Wikipedia in English (8)
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