The Tempest (Folger Shakespeare Library)
by William Shakespeare
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Book Summary Information
Author: William ShakespeareEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2004-06-22
ISBN: 0743482832
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Accessories:
- Othello (Folger Shakespeare Library)
- Measure for Measure (Folger Shakespeare Library)
- Antony and Cleopatra (Folger Shakespeare Library)
Book Reviews of The Tempest (Folger Shakespeare Library)
Book Review: "Come, kiss the book!"
Summary: 5 Stars
As Shakespeare's final play, The Tempest is appropriately a culmination of his motifs and themes amassed beforehand in previous work. You have the jester, the underhanded political aspirants, the outcast, the young naive fools hopelessly in lust, and the omniscient schemer behind it all. What may have disappointed Elizabethan audiences may have actually been this mix, since it was such a combination that it felt more as if the plot was just regurgitating old plot devices but rest assured, the Bard works up a fine troupe of spirits under a firm lead to work our minds.
The story involves the shipwreck of Italian nobles that leaves them unscathed and in even better condition than on the ship save the fate of King Alonso's son Ferdinand. Meanwhile, the wizard Prospero calls upon his spiritual underling Ariel and receives confirmation that his revenge upon those who sentenced his exile has begun.
Like all Shakespearean characters, they're real to the point that you may be disgusted at them and later realize how close you are with their vices. With a seeming reunion of all his characters, this makes for a perverse tale. Prospero commands a wide array of spells to delight and fright but once his tale of woe is told, it's pitiful that his learned nature led him to exile and pettiness and by the story's end he's the same. Antonio and Sebastian are heartless fiends who've only a mind for power by any means and even knowing this, we laugh at their sniping witty wordplays with their fellow nobles, particularly the saintly Gonzalo. Caliban is a tragic figure demonstrating the evils of colonial enslavement and even then his misadventures with the drunken self-proclaimed celestial monarch Stephano and Trinculo, the smart fool, so to speak, make great comedy.
There's a great scene where Prospero realizes that Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo want to kill him, comic characters all against a wizard, and he takes it seriously. It's rightfully absurd but when his previous dictatorial behavior towards his deluded and imprisoned servants is recalled, it calls to mind Of Mice and Men, where Slim says, "Take a real smart guy and he ain't hardly ever a nice fella."
When Stephano says to Caliban, "Come, kiss the book!" with a booze bottle, we realize just how intoxicating the Bard was and are tempted to leave it at that. But when bookworms and literary professors are observed in the throes of their obsession, maybe it's not such a ludicrous comparison after all.
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