Novel shipwrecks Shakespeare in Bermuda as a precursor to writing The Tempest
Reviewed by Gabrielle Pantera.
HOLLYWOOD: “While touring the island of Bermuda, I learned about the legend that a ship that sank off its shore in 1609 inspired Shakespeare to write The Tempest,” says The Gentleman Poet author Kathryn Johnson. “The connection was just too intriguing to pass up.”
Johnson’s book is a tribute to Shakespeare and The Tempest. Her prose style is visual and poignant. You feel you’re reading what may have really been the backstory to The Tempest. This novel has a shipwreck, romance and a mystery.
The Gentleman Poet is the story of Elizabeth Person, recently orphaned by the plague. She boards a ship to America as a servant to Mistress Horton, an elderly woman who is helping to fund the Virginia Company’s ships going to the newly founded Jamestown Colony. The ship gets separated from the other ships by a tempest and strands the passengers and crew near the Bermuda islands. Once ashore they realize it’s a paradise.
William Strachey is a mysterious gentleman on board the ship who encourages a romance between Elizabeth and the ship’s cook Thomas Powell. When Thomas falls ill, Elizabeth takes charge of feeding the castaways. Her knowledge of herbs and vegetables stands her in good stead. To amuse people, William writes a play. Elizabeth, cast as Miranda, begins to realize who William really is.
Johnson first got the idea for her book while visiting Bermuda on her honeymoon, when she and her husband were married on a cruise ship about seven years ago. Johnson later went back to Bermuda to spend several weeks researching the island’s history and viewing relics brought up from the wreck of the Sea Venture, the ship that ran aground in the tempest. Her research didn’t stop there.
“I spent a lot of time in the famous Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.,” says Johnson. “It’s the world’s largest repository of materials related to Shakespeare and his times. Studying his play, the true accounts of the wreck written in 1609 and 1610, and the ship’s manifest were all incredibly exciting and helpful.”
Johnson’s dramatic rights agent is Taryn Fagerness, who handles performance and foreign rights. It’s being considered but hasn’t been committed for a screenplay yet.
Johnson is based in Maryland, near Washington, D.C. She was born in Swampscott, Massachusetts, north of Boston. She’s currently writing another historical novel involving a famous literary figure. When not writing, she teaches novel writing in D.C. at the Writer’s Center and works individually with new writers. Her site: www.gentlemanpoet.com features a contest related to the book. Her mentoring site is www.writebyyou.com.
Rating: 3 Stars
The Gentleman Poet: A Novel of Love, Danger, and Shakespeare’s The Tempest by Kathryn Johnson. Trade Paperback, 336 pages, Publisher: Avon A (September 7, 2010), Language: English. ISBN: 9780061965319, $13.99
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