Customer Reviews

Twelfth Night; Or, What You Will

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Oxford School Series of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" provides a detailed analysis of his writing. Footnotes are elaborate, yet easy to read. In addition to that, the presence of a few photos of past productions enhance the reader's ability to visualize the play. Sketches of scenes and characters in the Elizabethan style are also present at various pages. Also, to help make the play more active, the music of verses that require melodies are actually written out at the back. Study aids and questionnaires at the end also help out to encourage a better understanding of the text. All in all, this book is a very good study aid, especially for high school students, beginners at reading shakespeare, or even teachers. However, if you're looking for a really in-depth, PhD-type immersion of the text, this is not for you. Its simplistic language and (no kidding) extremely thorough translation of Shakespeare's English to today's modern toungue actually gets in the way for people who do understand it fairly well. "Twelfth Night" is a hilariously well-done play, and its humor does not get lost in this book. I seriously suggest you pick up a copy of this soon if you're mainly involved in studying it. While elaborate essays on the play are not present in this book, at least you could come up with your own after coming to a definite understanding of it.

I didn't read this particular version of Twelfth Night, so I'm rating the plot, not the editing. This book was the first play by Shakespeare that I read, and I loved it! It starts when Viola and her brother, Sebastian, are seperated in a shipwreck. Viola decides to disguise herself as a boy and work for Orsino, the duke. Orsino sends Viola to tell Olivia that he loves her. Viola does what he says, but she wishes she didn't have to, because she has fallen in love with Orsino! Then Olivia falls in love with Viola, thinking that she is a boy. While all this is going on, Andrew Aguecheek is wooing Olivia, who scorns him. Also, Maria, the maid, Sir Toby Belch, Olivia's uncle, and another servant write a letter and put it where Malvolio, a servant, will see it. The letter says that Olivia is in love with Malvolio. Malvolio immediately starts trying to woo Olivia. Maria and Sir Toby pretend to think that he's mad, and lock him up. Meanwhile, Sebastian comes to town with Antonio, the man who saved him from the shipwreck. Antonio gives him his purse and says that he must stay away from the city because he fought against the duke in a war. A few minutes later, Antonio realizes that he needs money for lodgings and goes to find Sebastian. In the city, Viola is being forced to fight Andrew Aguecheek for the right to marry Olivia. Antonio sees the fight and hurries to intervene. Orsino recognizes him and has him arrested. Antonio asks Viola for his purse so that he can pay bail, thinking that she is Sebastian. Viola denies having had a purse. Then Sebastian comes up. Olivia had found him and married him on the spot, and he, deliriously happy, had gone away to give Antonio his purse. On the way, he met Sir Toby and Andrew Aguecheek. When they try to force him to fight, he punches them and goes on. They come up too, bitterly accusing Viola. (No one has seen Sebastian yet.) Then Olivia comes up and speaks to Viola, who denies being her wife. Orsino becomes angry with her, thinking that she has married Olivia, and accuses her of treachery. Just as things are looking bad for Viola, Sebastian reveals himself. Then everyone is happy (since Orsino falls in love with Viola on the spot) except Andrew Aguecheek and Malvolio, who is later set free. The plot of this book is a little hard to understand, but it is halariously funny and makes for happy reading.

Please notice that G.H.'s in-house review above does not refer to the recording pictured above, nor do any of the reviews so far. What follows refers only to the Naxos set.

There are now three complete recordings of <Twelfth Night> available. We have the older and elegantly read version on Harper Audio with Dorothy Tutin as the best Viola of the lot. Acted with a bit more verve though with less poetry is the Arkangel Shakespeare recording with a Scottish Malvolio and a cast of younger sounding actors who are making names for themselves in Great Britain. However I am very impressed with the "Twelfth Night" that is one of the latest additions to the Naxos Classic Drama series.

By far, this is the best-produced "Twelfth Night." One actually feels he is hearing an actual stage performance with all of the action but with the loss of none of the poetry. Perhaps the Viola does sound a little maturer than imagination would have her and the Sir Toby Belch a little less belchy sounding than others. None of the Festes sing as marvelously as did Peter Pears on the long deleted Marlowe Society recording (also with Tutin); however, on this Naxos set David Timson stays nicely in tune--and directs the production to boot. And he keeps things moving neatly along, which is saying a lot for Shakespeare recordings.

The CD version has the advantage of excellent tracking cues for not only each scene but for key points within the scene. The Harper CDs give a new track only for each new scene and the tapes (of course) are quite useless in that regard. The Arkangel series at present exists only on tapes but they are planning to reissue the entire series on CDs. So this Naxos release is the one of choice so far.

This is the first and only comedy (so far) that I have read by Shakespeare, and it will certainly not be the last. Twelfth Night is a hilarious comedy, in its situations, characterizations, and dialogue. The mixups between Viola and Sebastian are classic (I can imagine them being acted on stage). Feste, IMO, is the best character because he is supposedly the fool yet is the wisest of all the characters, giving a tinge of irony to this farce. The subplot with Malvolio is amusing and does not detract from the rest of the play. Five stars, read it.

. . . to really achieve its full potential, this play needs to be acted out on stage. Still, highly excellent, involving twins, cross-dressing, love tangles, sword-fighting, secret marriages, music, disguises, mistaken identities, high speech, and lowbrow humour.

The entire play takes place in Illyria. In the main plot, Orsino is in love with Olivia, who unfortunately does not return his feelings. Viola is shipwrecked on the Illyrian coast, and dressed as a boy, comes to serve in Orsino's court, where she of course falls in love with Orsino. Meanwhile, in Olivia's court, some of her courtiers plan a cruel--but funny--practical joke against her pompous steward Malvolio. There is also a third plot later on involving Viola's twin brother Sebastian, who has been shipwrecked likewise. Naturally things get quite confusing, but, true to Shakespeare's comedic style, everything gets worked out in the end.

This is an enjoyable book to read, and the notes are very helpful. However, it is still better as a performance.

Although this comedy lacks the hilarious tone of "The Comedy of Errors" or the superb construction of "Much Ado About Nothing," it is still a pretty good play. The play begins seriously enough when after an accident at sea, Viola is looking for her lost brother. She disuises herself as a man and offers her service to Orsino. The humour is well drawn when Olivia falls in love with Viola's male disguise. Also, there is some strong comedy when Viola makes some characters angry and her brother Sebastian (who resembles Viola's male identity) suffers the consequences. But the play also has some really touching moments. Viola as a man faces the hard task of assisting Orsino in his persuit of Olivia, even though she wants Orsino for herself. Shakespeare ofcourse manages to resolve everything and offer us a happy ending. If you read this, knowing not to expect Shakespeare's best, you will probably find this very pleasant.

This, being the first work of Shakespeare that I have read, already has me hypnotized into his world of unrequitted love and just consquences. Viola proves to be a powerful heroine, in both her dedication to her Duke and her brother. The side plots keep the story entertaining; the oblivious Sir Andrew,Sir Toby and Maria, with thier constant intrigues involving the self absorbed Malvolio, and Feste, always there to tie everything together and make a few extra coin. Definitly a book to be enjoyed by any interested reader

NO! This is NOT just like all of Shakespeare's other comidies! Lots of people might think so because it involves disguises and people falling in love with people they shouldn't because of those disguises. When girls dress up as guys, things are bound to get complicated. And when you bring in twins,well forget trying to understand. The characters themselves are confused, not to mention the readers! So Twelfth Night is extremely unique and no one should label it as "just like all the others"

There is very little here to set this play apart from the rest of Shakespeare's comedies, other than, perhaps, the fact that it has more of the usual comedic plot devices than usual. There is the cross-dressing woman who is fallen in love with by another woman, there are the twins separated, there are the usual litany of star-crossed lovers each in love with someone who doesn't requite their love (until, of course, the end; this being a comedy, everything must come out all right in the end.) All told, about the only memorable line from this play is "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, some have greatness thrust upon them."

A perfectly amusing bit of Shakespearean fluff, but there is little to recommend this play that wouldn't likewise recommend almost any of Shakespeare's comedies.