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Rating: 
Summary: Romantic Comedy "Twelfth Night"
Review: "Twelfth Night" is one of the famous romantic comedy written by William Shakespeare. Many critics said, "Twelfth Night" is the masterpiece among his comedy because his fully developed style and insight are in the "Twelfth Night", so it has special value and attractiveness.
There are four main characters in "Twelfth Night" ; Duke Orsino, Olivia, Viola, and
Sebastian. Duke Orsino who lives in Illyria loves Olivia, so every day he send one of
his servant to Olivia's house for proposal of marriage. However, every time Olivia
refuses his proposal for the reason that she lost her brother before long, so she is now
in big sorrow and can not love anyone. One day, Viola comes into Illyria. She and her
twin brother Sebastian are separated in a shipwreck and they are rescued by two
different people in two different place, so they think the other one is dead each other.
Viola disguise as a man and become a servant of Duke Orsino, and then she fall in
love with Duke Orsino. But, Duke Orsino loves Olivia and he send Viola whose new
name as a man is "Cesario" to Olivia for proposal. Unexpectedly, Olivia fall in love with
Cesario!! Therefore, love triangle is formed. In the latter scene, Sebastian also come into
Illyria, so the confusion getting worse. However, in the end, all misunderstandings are
solved and Cesario become Viola, so the four main characters find their love.
There are also four supporting characters in "Twelfth Night" ; Clown, Sir Toby Belch,
Malvolio, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek. They make the readers laugh through their funny
behaviors and comments in subplot.
"Twelfth Night" is very funny story and enjoyable book, so I recommend you.
Rating:
Summary: I would give it five stars, but. . .
Review: . . . 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Definitely one of my favorites!
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Book
Review: I thought that this was a good book and the only reason that I gave it 4 stars was because it was so hard to understand. It is a great story about love and disguises, and it is also very funny.
Rating:
Summary: Shakespeare Underneath The Hyperbole
Review: I've read a lot of Shakespeare in high school: Romeo and Juliet as a freshman, Taming of the Shrew as a sophomore, Othello as a junior, and now Twelfth Night as a jaded, cynical senior. Jaded because Shakespeare was often introduced to me as a thing regarded to be classic, but its status left unexplained, or the reason I should put up with 16th century language for it. "Shakespeare," Mrs. Sherwin- my horrible freshman literature teacher- said in her annoying, melodramatic voice, "is important to all understanding of English literature." "You haven't started learning English literature until you've read Shakespeare." And I was forced to act out Romeo, a herbswoman, and, at one time, Juliet in the version Mrs. Sherwin put on for the rest of the class.
I picked up Twelfth Night because I wanted to see a Shakespeare not bent on destruction, a Shakespeare not on the edge of death and a 15th century view of humanity. Mrs. Kelley told me it was a comedy, that I'll "love it," and that it will change my perspective on Shakespeare, identity, and people. "This play is one that people think Shakespeare didn't write," she said, "because it's so empowering of women." And it is.
The plot is rather simple: A ship capsizes off the coast of Illyria, an island between Greece and Italy. Two fraternal sibilings, a woman and a man, both presume each other to be lost, dead, or caught away in the waves and at the bottom of the sea. The woman, Viola, is saved by the Captain who brings her to shore and then to the Duke of Illyria. She is instantly smitten by him and decides to dress up as a man, Cesario, in order to become his servant and eventually woo him. But the Duke, Ursino, has another lady love, Olivia, and send Cesario to woo her; Olivia falls in love with Cesario. Mistaken identity leads to two mismatched couples. Adding to the troubles is the fact that many other suitors are after Olivia, including the affable Sir Andrews, a drunk soldier whom, realizing Cesario's status with Olivia, wants to kill Cesario. And Olivia, who chases Cesario even though he constantly says, "I am not what you think I am." The plot thickens and thickens, until the rich, incredible climax with the thought-provoking resolution.
Mistaken identity is the obvious theme behind this book, but the more mysterious and subtle theme is clearly women. Women are empowered in this novel to fend off their weak, drunk, boorish men. Olivia charms all around her; Cesario (Viola) is a social climber, and Maria (Olivia's maid) manages to manipulate people with such skill that even a modern man is forced to chuckle and be amazed. And even without a theme, this book is funny! There are many instances of wordplay, and I always found myself enchanted and occasionally, unfortunately, beguiled by the characters. This is the original Confederacy of Dunces, and a play that shows Shakespeare for what he really was underneath mounds of hyperbole by bad English teachers: A funny, funny man.
Read it; love it. Two thumbs up for Twelfth Night.
Rating: 
Summary: A mid-range Shakespearean comedy.
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Cross-dressers, Pranks, and Violence-who needs more?
Review: This is, by far, one of my most favorite Shakespeare plays. It's hilarious-probably the funniest I've read. Shakespeare has the nuttiest characters, such as Sir Toby and Sir Andrew Aguecheek, who likes to drink and be silly more than anything else. Then there's Maria, the conniving servant, who fools Malvolio (the pompous servant) into thinking Olivia (the rich chick) is in love with him, and, of course, he makes a fool out of himself. On top of all that, there's Viola, a girl pretending to be a guy named Cesario, and Olivia falls in love with her/him. It's a hoot. The whole thing. Until my Shakespeare class, I had never even heard of this book, which is a surprise because it's so much better and so much more captivating than some of his other plays. A must read!!!
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