The Alexander Shakespeare – The Tempest - Softcover

Shakespeare, William

3.79

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9780003252491: The Alexander Shakespeare – The Tempest

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0003252493 ISBN 13: 9780003252491

Publisher: Collins Educational, 1988

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This respected edition of Shakespeare’s play contains the full text, extensive notes and supplementary material written for school use.

Chapters include:

The Theatre in Shakespeare’s day

Shakespeare’s Life and Times

Money in Shakespeare’s Day

Introduction to the Play

Characters, Text and Notes

Also included is a reading list and an index of Themes

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

One of Shakespeare's most famous but also enigmatic plays, for many years the story of Prospero's exile from his native Milan, and life with his daughter Miranda on an unnamed island in the Mediterranean, was seen as an autobiographical dramatisation of Shakespeare's departure from the London stage. The Epilogue, spoken by Prospero, claims that "now my charms are all o'erthrown", appeared to reflect Shakespeare's own renunciation of his magical dramatic powers as he retired to Stratford. But The Tempest is far more than this, as recent commentators have pointed out. The dramatic action observes the classical unities of time, place and action, as Prospero uses his "rough magic" to lure his wicked usurping brother, Antonio, and King Alonso of Naples to his island retreat to torment them before engineering his return to Milan.

However, the play is full of extraordinary anomalies and fantastic interludes, including Gonzalo's fantasy of a utopian commonwealth, Prospero's magical servant Ariel, and the "poisonous slave" Caliban. The creation of Caliban has particularly fascinated critics, who have noticed in his creation a colonial dimension to the play. In this respect Caliban can be seen as an American Indian or African slave, who articulates a particularly powerful strain of anti-colonial sentiment, telling Prospero that "this island's mine, by Sycorax my mother,/ Which thou tak'st from me". This has led to an intense reassessment of the play from a post-colonial perspective, as critics and historians have debated the extent to which the play endorses or criticises early English colonial expansion. --Jerry Brotton

Review:

The best notes of any edition I've used. (Lewis Ward, Exeter University)

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