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Cover of The Tempest

The Tempest

by William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

  • Free to read
  • 1 hour to read
  • Reading level: 6th grade

"The Tempest" by William Shakespeare is a play written in 1610–1611. On a remote island, Prospero, a magician and former Duke of Milan, lives with his daughter Miranda and two servants—the monster Caliban and the spirit Ariel. When a ship carrying his treacherous brother passes nearby, Prospero conjures a storm that strands the passengers on his island. Through magic and manipulation, he sets in motion an intricate plan involving revenge, romance, and redemption, exploring themes of betrayal, forgiveness, and family.

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  • Shipwreck victims
  • Fathers and daughters
  • Magicians
  • Political refugees
  • Islands
  • Spirits
  • Tragicomedy

Read the opening

Executive Director's Notes:

In addition to the notes below, and so you will *NOT* think all the spelling errors introduced by the printers of the time have been corrected, here are the first few lines of Hamlet, as they are presented herein:

Barnardo. Who's there?
Fran. Nay answer me: Stand & vnfold
your selfe

Bar. Long liue the King

As I understand it, the printers often ran out of certain words or letters they had often packed into a "cliche". . .this is the original meaning of the term cliche. . .and thus, being unwilling to unpack the cliches, and thus you will see some substitutions that look very odd. . .such as the exchanges of u for v, v for u, above. . .and you may wonder why they did it this way, presuming Shakespeare did not actually write the play in this manner. . . .

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About this edition

This free edition of The Tempest by William Shakespeare comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #2235, released 2000-07-01. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Plays/Films/Dramas, British Literature.

Other editions: eBook #23042 (most read), eBook #1135, eBook #1540, eBook #1801, eBook #47518.

Summary provided by Project Gutenberg (automatically generated).

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