Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare, tells the funny and romantic story of both royalty and the common people as they pursue their individual desires. A noblewoman, Lady Olivia, falls hopelessly in love with another woman dressed as a member of the opposite gender, who is in turn mistaken for her brother. A strict prude named Malvolio falls victim to a ridiculous trick. Even the fool in this story is not what he acts to be. Read this story to become entangled in one of the classic works of William Shakespeare.

I truly liked this story a great deal. I enjoyed the sudden and constant plot twists, which baffled the characters and led to numerous hilarious situations. I think anybody who enjoys Elizabethan comedy, or comedic works in general, should definitely read this story. In particular, this story made me think about life at Shakespeare's time, and how it was so vastly different in several aspects from modern life.

Reviewed by Alec S., Grade 10
Glendale Central Library


1 comment:

Melissa said...

This comedy is about how a two twins get separated at sea, and the ensuing adventure after that fact when they get separated. The separation of the twins leads Viola to disguise herself as her brother Sebastian who she believes is dead in order to move freely in the area. This book has many love triangles and comedically problems that happen including practical jokes and misunderstanding sword fights. This book follows the adventures of Viola as she works for Duke Orsino disguised as a man while the duke is trying to marry a woman named Olivia who after meeting Viola, falls in love with her disguised character Cesario, during this whole time disguised Viola is in love with the Duke. Eventually Sebastian and Viola meet up leading to a confused conversation between all the main characters, including Sir Toby Belch Olivia's drunk uncle and Sir Toby's drinking buddy Sir Andrew who is in love with Olivia. Will the character's sort it out and live happily ever after, only reading this will tell.

This book is a fantastic read with many romances, adventures, and laughs. This book may have been written by Shakespeare, but even made me laugh while reading it. This book has all sorts of stories and different plots while always focusing on the adventure of Viola and figuring out what will happen. One complaint I would say is that it does not wrap up the loose ends as well as it could and it does get boring in some points along the way, as well as being a bit confusing to read as Shakespeare wrote in a different way than what we are used to. Although all these problems, this book is a very interesting and funny book if you are able to take the time to understand it. This book has everything, jokes, sword fights, romance, and much, much more to offer. I would highly recommend this book, and I even read this in 8th grade after an English teacher taught us about Shakespeare, so this is really a book for anyone to read and it is super entertaining for anyone who has the time to read it.

Reviewed by WHL, Grade 12
Montrose Library