About the Play:

The Tempest is an epic story of shipwrecks, monsters, and magic, weaving a timeless tale of revenge, redemption, and the power of forgiveness. The magician and former duke Prospero, who has been exiled on an island with his daughter Miranda for years, plots revenge on the brother who usurped his throne with the help of the magical island creatures in his thrall. With its combination of comedy, romance, revenge and fantasy, The Tempest has always served as a wonderful introduction to Shakespeare, especially for young playgoers. A masterpiece by William Shakespeare, The Tempest is celebrated for its universal themes of freedom and captivity, betrayal and compassion, and what is lost and what is found.

Read William Shakespeare's great comedy The Tempest in all its brilliance and actually understand what it means. No Fear Shakespeare gives you Shakespeare's complete text of The Tempest on the left-hand page, side-by-side with an easy-to-understand modern English on the right.

Shakespeare side-by-side in plain English. Each No Fear Shakespeare contains:
• The complete text of the original play
• A line-by-line translation that puts Shakespeare into the kind of English people actually speak today
• A complete list of characters with descriptions
• Plenty of helpful commentary

First performed in 1611, The Tempest is believed to be the last play William Shakespeare wrote alone.

About the Playwright:

William Shakespeare was a seventeenth-century writer and dramatist, and is arguably the greatest English-language playwright. Known as the Bard of Avon, under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth I, he penned more than 30 plays, 154 sonnets, and numerous narrative poems and short verses. Equally accomplished in histories, tragedies, comedy, and romance, Shakespeare's most famous works include Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, The Taming of the Shrew, and As You Like It. Like many of his contemporaries, including Christopher Marlowe, Shakespeare began his career on the stage, eventually rising to become part-owner of Lord Chamberlain's Men, a popular dramatic company of his day, and of the storied Globe Theatre in London. Extremely popular in his lifetime, Shakespeare's works continue to resonate more than three hundred years after his death. His plays are performed more often than any other playwright's, have been translated into every major language in the world, and are studied widely by scholars and students.