Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (Cliffs Notes)

Rating:
Summary: Understanding Shakespeare's best romantic comedy
Review: Even before the film "Shakespeare in Love" revitalized interest in "Twelfth Night," this play has been one of the most read of the Bard's comedies. As with the other Cliffs Notes dealing with Shakespeare, this volume begins with a brief life of Shakespeare that collects what little is actually known about the man, followed by a brief synopsis of the play and a list of characters. The Summary and Commentary section looks at each scene of the play, and is most useful if you read the commentary after you have read the corresponding scene. You simply cannot get by just reading the summary with any Shakespeare play because the dialogue is absolute crucial to any understanding or appreciation of the characters/play. The character analyses look at Viola, Olivia, Duke Orsino, the comic trio of Sir Toby Belch, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and Maria, and Malvolio. Unlike most of the little yellow books with the black stripes, you will not find sections dealing with specific literary themes or motifs. The best analysis of any Shakespeare play makes much better use of the dialogue that this particular volume does, so I have to reiterate that you cannot teach/read any play without being able to deal with specific language and key lines.

Rating:
Summary: Understanding Shakespeare's best romantic comedy
Review: Even before the film "Shakespeare in Love" revitalized interest in "Twelfth Night," this play has been one of the most read of the Bard's comedies. As with the other Cliffs Notes dealing with Shakespeare, this volume begins with a brief life of Shakespeare that collects what little is actually known about the man, followed by a brief synopsis of the play and a list of characters. The Summary and Commentary section looks at each scene of the play, and is most useful if you read the commentary after you have read the corresponding scene. You simply cannot get by just reading the summary with any Shakespeare play because the dialogue is absolute crucial to any understanding or appreciation of the characters/play. The character analyses look at Viola, Olivia, Duke Orsino, the comic trio of Sir Toby Belch, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and Maria, and Malvolio. Unlike most of the little yellow books with the black stripes, you will not find sections dealing with specific literary themes or motifs. The best analysis of any Shakespeare play makes much better use of the dialogue that this particular volume does, so I have to reiterate that you cannot teach/read any play without being able to deal with specific language and key lines.