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Generally agreed to be Shakespeare`s last play, THE TEMPEST was most likely written in 1610. Twelve years before the action begins, Prospero--Duke of Milan--and his daughter, Miranda, were stranded by Prospero`s brother, Antonio, on a remote and idyllic island where Miranda has grown up happily among the beasts and flowers, never seeing any man but her father. Many years later, Prospero uses his powers and the help of Ariel, the sprite, to effect a shipwreck--hence the play`s title--that brings Antonio to the island, along with the king of Naples and his son, Ferdinand, who promptly falls in love with Miranda. Their love story, juxtaposed with Prospero`s revenge on his brother and his final act of mercy, form the basis of a simple plot. A combination of tragedy and romantic comedy, the play includes a happy ending that, finally, leans toward the latter. Unlike Shakespeare`s other plays, THE TEMPEST is full of magic and exoticism and what we now think of as special effects, using evocative music and extravagant imagery to create a mood of enchantment that, nonetheless, confronts serious questions about reality and illusion. Some interpretations of the play see Prospero--who, in his dazzling last speech, renounces his magic powers--as the aging Shakespeare bidding farewell to the theater. THE TEMPEST is also interesting because its events take place in a 24-hour period. And it is, of course, the source of a famous phrase: when the sheltered Miranda first lays eyes on Ferdinand, she exclaims, Oh brave new world, that has such people init!
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Deep Blue
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Presents the first two published collections by the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet--A Boy's Will and North of Boston, which includes two of his most familiar works, Mending Wall and The Death of the Hired Man--accompanied by detailed notes, scholarly commentary, and an updated bibliography. Original.
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It`s Christmas Eve, 1979, in Wichita, Kansas, and sleazy lawyer Charlie Arglist is about to skip town. Charlie`s been embezzling funds from the mobster whose porn empire he helps to oversee, and now the time has come to make himself scarce. But, in the holiday spirit, he decides to make the rounds of the Wichita underworld to say his goodbyes. This decision sets in motion a chain of violent, yet hilarious, events.
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Adrenaline junkie Aud Torvingen--a former cop and transplanted Norwegian living in Atlanta--is hired to investigate a bombing by Julia Lyons-Bennett, an art broker who survived the blast. As the case becomes more and more convoluted, so do Torvingen's feelings towards her client, and when the solution only seems to offer more questions, it looks as if she has been investigating the wrong thing all along.
Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005.
For personal use only.
All rights reserved.