Twelfth Night (Shakespeare, Signet Classic) - Softcover

Shakespeare, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0451526767 ISBN 13: 9780451526762

Publisher: Penguin, 1998

Synopsis

The Signet Classics edition of William Shakespeare's comedy of lovers misled.

Romantic folly and false identites abound as an unusual love triangle takes the stage in this play about Orsino, the infatuated Duke of Illyria; Olivia, the countess he pursues; and Viola, the woman disguised as a man who comes between them.

This revised Signet Classics edition includes unique features such as:

- An overview of Shakespeare's life, world, and theater
- A special introduction to the play by the editor, Herschel Baker
- Selections from Barnabe Rich, Of Apolonius and Silla, the source from which Shakespeare derived Twelfth Night
- Dramatic criticism from Samuel Johnson, William Hazlitt, Charles Lamb, and others
- A comprehensive stage and screen history of notable actors, directors, and productions
- Text, notes, and commentaries printed in the clearest, most readable text
- And more...

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 while 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 that 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, while Viola falls in love with Orsino, Olivia falls in love with her alter ego, Cesario, while 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 drunker 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

Review

'refreshing and of immense practical use ... Sources and provenances are fascinatingly discussed.'Christopher Morley, Birmingham Post Weekend

The commentary on Twelfth Night is alive with the editors' feeling for the play in performance. (M.M. Mahoud, University of Kent, YES, 27, 1996)

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0451526767
• ISBN 13: 9780451526762
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 192