Description: The Tempest isone of Shakespeare's enduringly popular and much-studied later plays. The introduction has been extended to focus on new scholarship about the play's first production and to take account of major theatre and film versions since first publication in 1999, including Julie Taymor's 2010 film starring Helen Mirren.
Brief description: William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was an English dramatist, poet, and actor, generally regarded as the greatest playwright of all time.
Review Quotes:
"The Tempest is a play that insists on both a dreaminess and its metaphysical significance." --Henry Hitchings, Evening Standard 15.6.10
"It's often said The Tempest is better read than performed." --Christopher Hart, Sunday Times, 4.7.10 "Because the Vaughans are steeped in The Tempest, having both produced separate volumes about the play, their attempts to cram in as much detail as possible into the introduction makes for a very dense read. But refreshingly their work lacks an agenda; probably because they've worked through their own opinions elsewhere they're more relaxed about simply presenting the arguments of others and letting the reader decide as to their merits, pleasingly giving due prominence to contemporary thinkers like Bate, Wells and Kermode." --Stuart Ian Burns, The Hamlet Weblog, 30.8.11 "The Vaughans devote twenty-two new pages to an account of the latest scholarship, including new new suggestions for sources and comparisons for the play... The new pages are a sound and worthwhile addition to an edition that was good already." --Raphael Lyne, Times Literary Supplement