A Midsummer Tempest

infobox Book |
name = A Midsummer Tempest
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Cover of first paperback edition
(Ballantine Books, 1975)
author = Poul Anderson
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Alternate history/
Fantasy novel
publisher = Doubleday
release_date = 1974
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
pages = 207 pp
isbn = ISBN 0-385-05505-6
preceded_by =
followed_by = "A Midsummer Tempest" is an 1974 alternate history fantasy novel by Poul Anderson. In 1975, it was nominated for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel and Nebula Award for Best Novel and won the Mythopoeic Award.

Plot introduction

The setting is in a parallel world where William Shakespeare was not the Bard but the Great Historian, a world where the events in Shakespeare's plays were historical. The plays having depicted anachronistic technology, Anderson extrapolated that the this world was more technologically advanced than the real world. The novel takes place in the era of Cromwell and Charles I, but the characters deal with, as well as the English Civil War, the Industrial Revolution.

Although various plays are alluded to, the plot is chiefly shaped by "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "The Tempest".

As part of the homage to Shakespeare, the nobler characters speak in blank verse printed as prose.

Plot summary

Prince Rupert is taken by the Roundheads; held captive at a country house, he falls in love with his captor's niece, Jennifer. One of his troopers, Will Fairweather, followed him to the house where he was held captive; with the help of Jennifer, Will brings him to Oberon and Titania, who offer magical aid. Rupert and Jennifer exchange magic rings that will aid them as long as they are true to each other. Rupert sets out with Will to find the books that Prospero sank, in order to aid King Charles.

Rupert, fleeing Roundheads, finds refuge in a magical inn, "The Old Phoenix", which proves to be a nexus between parallel worlds. There he meets Valeria Matuchek, who is from an alternate fantasy twentieth-century America (a child in Anderson's "Operation Chaos" and "Operation Luna", she is now an adult), and Holger Carlsen, born in a world where the Matter of France is history, later trapped in twentieth-century non-fantasy America (the hero of Anderson's "Three Hearts and Three Lions"). Valeria explains what happens in the English Civil War, including the king's execution, strengthening Rupert's determination. He finds a Spanish ship that will transport him; it is carrying an ambassador and his wife.

Jennifer's uncle discovers her on her return and resolves to use the ring to find Rupert. She is brought, captive, to a port, where the ring enables her to steal a boat and set sail. The ambassador's wife uses a magic potion to seduce Rupert, and the rings fail. Rupert cannot find his way to the island, and Jennifer is stranded at sea. Despairing, Rupert takes to the library at Milan to try to work out where to find the island and so the books. Jennifer's plight becomes desperate from thirst, but Ariel finds her and brings her to the island. Rupert works out the location, and meets Jennifer; they are reconciled.

They retrieve the books and magically bear them back to England. Charles I has taken up a position near Glastonbury Tor for reasons he does not himself understand. Rupert attempts the magic; Will Fairweather is possessed by a spirit of England and stirs up the magic of the land. The Roundheads are defeated, and Charles I wins the English Civil War.

At the Old Phoenix, Valeria believes that even if "romantic reactionaries" like Charles I won the English Civil War here, there is still the prospect of technological advance in North America. However, the fairies believed differently—they supported the Cavalier cause to delay the disenchantment of the world.

Rupert and Jennifer return the rings to Oberon and Titania, and retire to a peaceful married life.

Trivia

*The "Old Phoenix" appears in several of Poul Anderson's short stories as a nexus between worlds.

*Fairies of a darker sort play a pivotal role in Keith Roberts's "Pavane" (1968). It is uncertain whether this earlier alternate history novel affected Anderson's, however.