Twelfth Night (Oxford School Shakespeare) - Softcover

Shakespeare, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0198319924 ISBN 13: 9780198319924

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1996

Synopsis

The new editions contain new sections: Classwork and Examinations and Background to Shakespeare's England. There are also short sections on Date and Text, and Source.

About this title

Review:

One of Shakespeare's finest comedies, Twelfth Night was written at the same time as Hamlet and Troilus and Cressida, and whilst it shares their fascination with sex, death and confused identities, its exuberant comedy and linguistic inventiveness rises above the introspection of these plays. Viola and her twin brother Sebastian are separated in a storm, which washes them both up at different points on the shores of Illyria. Believing each other to be dead, both attempt to survive by using their wits. Viola cross-dresses and enters the service of the lovesick Orsino, in love with Olivia, an heiress in mourning for the loss of her brother. Orsino's saucy young page Cesario (Viola) soon falls in love with "his" master, who tells "him", "all is semblative a woman's part". Unfortunately, whilst Viola falls in love with Orsino, Olivia falls in love with her alter ego, Cesario, whilst also being pursued at the same time by her pompous servant Malvolio. Olivia's house is also turned upside down by the antics of her drunken uncle, Sir Toby Belch, and the whole crazy situation reaches boiling point when Sebastian reappears.

Despite the madcap plot, Twelfth Night remains one of Shakespeare's most complex and inventive comedies, fascinated with questions of cross-dressing, gender confusion, language and inversion, as well as retaining a darker edge to some of its laughter. --Jerry Brotton

Book Description:

Twelfth Night , in the popular Oxford School Shakespeare series, updated with a fresh new look.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0198319924
• ISBN 13: 9780198319924
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 142
• Editor: Gill OBE Roma