Tempest-Tost

Tempest-Tost, published in 1951 by Clarke Irwin, is the first novel in The Salterton Trilogy by Canadian novelist Robertson Davies.

Tempest-Tost could be considered theatre-fiction, which, as Graham Wolfe explains, refers to "novels and stories that engage in concrete and sustained ways with theatre as artistic practice and industry".

[1] In the novel, an amateur theatrical group sets about mounting a production of Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Romantic young scholar and assistant director Solomon ("Solly") Bridgetower, womanizer Roger Tasset and repressed middle-aged math teacher Hector Mackilwraith vie for the rich, beautiful and indifferent leading lady Griselda Webster.

As the production moves forward, each man presses his suit with characteristic blind-spots as small rivalries and ambitions are pursued by Griselda's precocious sister Fredegonde (Freddy), the vain Professor Walter Vambrace, his socially awkward daughter Pearl Vambrace, and the mischievous musician Humphrey Cobbler.