Publisher's Synopsis
The play opens with a storm raised by Prospero, who years earlier, as the rightful duke of Milan, had been set adrift in a boat with his three-year-old daughter, Miranda, by his usurping brother, Antonio. Prospero, more interested in his books and his magic than in the pragmatics of ruling Milan, had left himself vulnerable to this overthrow. Arriving at an island, Prospero proceeded to make good use of his magic by freeing the sprite Ariel from the torment of imprisonment to which Ariel had been subjected for refusing to carry out the wicked behests of the sorceress Sycorax.
