The Tempest
Series: Wordsworth Classics
Publisher: Wordsworth Editions Ltd
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Ware, Hertfordshire, UK
Language: eng
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Number of pages: 128
ISBN-13: 9781853262036
Copyright date: 2004
Subjects: Shakespeare plays, texts; Plays / Drama; Fiction; Classics; Shakespeare; Literature & Fiction; General
Description: The Wordsworth Classics' Shakespeare Series presents a newly-edited sequence of William Shakespeare's works. The textual editing takes account of recent scholarship while giving the material a careful reappraisal.

The Tempest is the most lyrical, profound and fascinating of Shakespeare's late comedies. Prospero, long exiled from Italy with his daughter Miranda, seeks to use his magical powers to defeat his former enemies. Eventually, having proved merciful, he divests himself of that magic, his 'art', and prepares to return to the mainland. The Tempest has often been regarded as Shakespeare's 'farewell to the stage' before his retirement.

In the past, critics emphasized the romantically beautiful features of The Tempest, seeing it as an imaginative fantasia. In recent decades, however, The Tempest has also been treated as a potently political drama which offers controversial insights into colonialism and racism. Frequently staged and diversely filmed, the play has influenced numerous poets and novelists.

(back cover)
Notes: Classics Library (NTC)