Traditionally read as Shakespeare’s farewell to the stage (it was likely his last solo play), it is also the canon’s most argued-over text on power and colonization — Caliban’s “this island’s mine” has launched a thousand rereadings. Short, strange, and endlessly deep; the rare play that is both a beginner’s delight and a scholar’s labyrinth.
Which edition?
1Arden Shakespeare, Third Series (revised)
Ed. Virginia Mason Vaughan & Alden T. Vaughan · Bloomsbury, 2011
The Vaughans own this play’s scholarship — colonial readings handled with real care.
2Oxford World’s Classics
Ed. Stephen Orgel · Oxford University Press, 1987
Orgel’s introduction changed how the play is read — still the essential essay.
3The New Cambridge Shakespeare
Ed. David Lindley · Cambridge University Press
Especially good on the play’s music and stagecraft.
4Folger Shakespeare LibraryFirst read? Start here
Ed. Barbara Mowat & Paul Werstine · Simon & Schuster
Short play, clean text — an afternoon well spent.
Tempest on screen
1Forbidden Planet (1956)
Film · dir. Fred M. Wilcox · inspired by The Tempest
2Prospero's Books (1991)
Film · dir. Peter Greenaway · inspired by The Tempest
3The Tempest (2010)
Film · dir. Julie Taymor
Reading Tempest this year?
Mark it in your record when you finish — one seat, kept for decades.