Book cover of The Tempest

Book description

Performed variously as escapist fantasy, celebratory fiction, and political allegory, The Tempest is one of the plays in which Shakespeare's genius as a poetic dramatist found its fullest expression. Significantly, it was placed first when published in the First Folio of 1623, and is now generally seen as the playwright's…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked The Tempest as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I read this play first aged sixteen, and connected strongly with it, because of the young motherless shipwrecked heroine. 

I spent significant periods of time with my grandfathers when I was growing up, and I read Prospero more as a grandfather figure than a father one.

When Freud and I were in the studio for days and weeks and months together, I felt like Miranda on Prospero’s island. The same created world. The same isolation. 

With Lucian as the Prospero figure, summoning a few other characters that came and went to his studio.

No one can go to a fictional…

From Nicola's list on taking you where you can’t go.

OK, I admit it. It is a play, not a book. But you can read the play in a book, and it is brilliant.

It is Shakespeare’s last play and he conjures up all his magic to create whole new worlds of mystery and drama. 

If you want to discover anything about the human condition, Shakespeare has said it and has probably said it better than anyone since his time.

This book/play shows the power of words to create new worlds, and it shows the power of imagination to make those words become real in your mind.

Each time I…

If you love The Tempest...

Book cover of Touching the Surface

Touching the Surface by Kimberly Sabatini,

When Elliot finds herself dead for the third time, she can't remember her past, is getting the cold shoulder from her best friend, and has no idea why she keeps repeating the same mistakes across her previous lives. Elliot just wants to move on, but first, she'll be forced to…

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