The Tempest: Collins Classics

Introduction to The Tempest
Introduction to the Text
Key Facts
The Tempest
Textual Notes
Second Quarto passages that do not appear in the Folio 
Scene-by-scene Analysis
The Tempest in Performance: the RSC and Beyond
Four Centuries of The Tempest: An Overview
At the RSC    
The Director's Cut: interviews with Peter Brook, Sam Mendes, Rupert Goold
Shakespeare's Career in the Theatre
Shakespeare's Works: a Conjectural Chronology
Further Reading

Review of the first edition: 'If you are looking for a model edition - by which I mean one that is concerned to honour the text and to explain the processes involved in editing - this is it. If I were ever again to undertake the editing of a Shakespeare play, I would keep Lindley's edition of The Tempest open beside me.' Peter Thompson
Review of the first edition: 'David Lindley's [The] Tempest is the best edition on the market and the paperback is a snip.' Studies in Theatre and Performance
Review of the first edition: 'Lindley aims both to represent and to explain the range of readings given the play in its theatrical and critical afterlives. His edition meets the high standards of the series in an exemplary manner, offering an especially fine introduction that focuses on the elusiveness of The Tempest, a feature that has made it central to late-twentieth-century criticism.' Barbara Hodgdon, Studies in English Literature
Review of the first edition: 'David Lindley's edition of The Tempest is easily the most outstanding version of this ostensibly straightforward yet hugely teasing play produced over the last thirty years. Its precise and scrupulous commentary notes are careful to the variety of ways the text can be spoken on stage. Its notes on the music and songs are admirably evocative, and its economical account of the huge range of critical views will send thousands of readers out in fruitful chases after the play's own multitudinous interests.' Andrew Gurr, editor, New Variorum 'Tempest'

This is the first edition of The Tempest to be developed by and for the RSC, the world's leading Shakespeare theatre company and it includes unique material to help the reader understand and enjoy Shakespeare on the stage as well as on the page
Illustrated with photographs of classic and unusual performances
Outstanding on-page notes which explain words and phrases unfamiliar to a modern audience, including the slang, political references and bawdy humour often ignored or censored in competing editions
Includes scene-by-scene summary, offering an easily understandable way into the play
Completely new introduction by Jonathan Bate, exploring the text and critical debates around it
Summary of the play's performance history at the RSC and elsewhere
Interviews with important Shakespearean directors Peter Brook, Sam Mendes and Rupert Goold discussing key productions at the RSC