The Tempest (Folger Shakespeare Library)

great book

Read this in college, it came in good condition.

Very good book - story. The play is covered in the right side pages and helpful hints on what is being said is on the left side pages. The hints and explanations help in understanding the play's plot.

As part of the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge, I needed to read a play and what better play to read than “The Tempest” having recently read and adored Margaret Atwood’s retelling in “Hag-Seed.” I have an even greater appreciation of “Hag-Seed” having read the original again. It had been more than twenty years since I’ve read Shakespeare. I found it simultaneously difficult to navigate the Old English and thematically extremely relevant to modern day. There is so much complexity within this brief play, that it is no wonder that people study Shakespeare to such lengths! This play takes place on an Island where the magician, Prospero, and his daughter Miranda have been living the last 12 years, since Prospero’s exile from his position as Duke of Milan. The only other person on the Island during this time is Calaban, son of the evil witch, Sycorax, who used to live there as well. Ariel is a fairy who does the bidding of Prospero. Calaban is also enslaved to Prospero, having attempted to rape Miranda. Prospero creates a tempest which bring his enemies by shipwreck to his Island. He scatters them across the Island such that Ferdinand the King’s son is separated from all others and will encounter Miranda, both falling in love with each other under Ariel’s spell. Gonzalo, Alonso, Antonio, and Sebastian are landed together. During their time on the Island, Antonio and Sebastian plot against the king’s (Alonso’s) life, assuming that Ferdinand has perished. Caliban, Trinculo and Stephano develop an alliance that intends to murder Prospero, so that they can take over the island. Finally, all come together. Prospero, with urging from Ariel, forgives all and all is calm. Prospero, a thinly disguised Shakespeare, asks for applause to end his imprisonment. There is much duality of humanity and the world represented within this play. Themes of good versus evil, magical vs earthly, land versus sea, honest versus dishonest, free versus imprisoned, sober versus drunk pervade this play. I loved the infusion of music, poetry and magic within this play. There is obvious brilliance to the themes and the structure of the play. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and found many unique characteristics setting it apart from some of Shakespeare’s other works that I’ve read.

This is a genuinely good work of drama, which I had to read for my Intro. to Drama class. This is one of those works of Shakespeare that has been done in a multitude of forms and variations, so it is quite likely that everyone has a rough idea of the story. Still, you really cannot replace the original. It's a bit odd, but quite good fun as well. The characters are memorable, and reading the story helps a great deal in understanding the numerous references to it that can be found elsewhere (not to mention, it's good entertainment). As to the edition itself, I found it to be greatly helpful in understanding the action in the play. It has a layout which places each page of the play opposite a page of notes, definitions, explanations, and other things needed to understand that page more thoroughly. While I didn't always need it, I was certainly glad to have it whenever I ran into a turn of language that was unfamiliar, and I definitely appreciated the scene-by-scene summaries. Really, if you want to or need to read Shakespeare, an edition such as this is really the way to go, especially until you get more accustomed to it.

Book looked brand new!! Used it for school.

The Tempest is a classic. The book was in excellent condition and arrived quickly. I highly recommend to any avid readers or fans of Shakespeare.

This review is about this particular edition of the text, not the story itself. I love The Tempest -- it's a delightful play. I am a high school English teacher, and we ordered 120 of these for our freshmen. After a week, the books were falling apart. By the end of the unit, students had taped their books together, used binder clips to hold in chunks of pages that had fallen out, and were carrying around Ziploc bags with pages in them. (The attached pictures are just a sample from one of eight classes). It's frustrating that this was their experience with such a beautiful play. I haven't had this problem with other Folger Shakespeare Library editions (as we've used them for Macbeth, Hamlet, and Othello at our school), so I'm not sure what happened here. Regardless, we will not be using this version next year.

Great quality, Folger Edition is perfect for students.

A very good book helps you understand Shakespeare better if you r new to his writings

Great book, a must have for students

My son enjoyed this version of The Tempest for his English class. Luv the fact that it is so small too.