Twelfth Night (No Fear Shakespeare)

by SparkNotes, Sparknotes Editors

Overview

Read Shakespeare’s plays in all their brilliance—and understand what every word means!
 
Don’t be intimidated by Shakespeare! These popular guides make the Bard’s plays accessible and enjoyable.

Each No Fear guide contains:

• The complete text of the original play
• A line-by-line translation that puts the words into everyday language
• A complete list of characters, with descriptions
• Plenty of helpful commentary

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781586638511
Publisher:	Spark
Publication date:	07/03/2003
Series:	No Fear Shakespeare Series
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	33,347
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.46(h) x 0.52(d)
Age Range:	12 - 15 Years

Table of Contents

	Editors' Preface	ix
	Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, or, What You Will	xiii
	Reading Shakespeare's Language	xiv
	Shakespeare's Life	xxvi
	Shakespeare's Theater	xxxiv
	The Publication of Shakespeare's Plays	xliii
	An Introduction to This Text	xlvii
	Twelfth Night, or, What You Will: Text of the Play with Commentary	1
	Textual Notes	191
	Twelfth Night: A Modern Perspective	197
	Further Reading	209
	Key to Famous Lines and Phrases	221

Editorial Reviews

Gr 3-5-These series titles aim to make the Bard's words accessible via free-prose adaptations. The formulaic retellings convey the plot lines of two popular comedies, but all evidence of his poetic genius is missing. Instead, modern slang expressions and/or cliches, such as Toby Belch's complaining of Olivia's "mooching around gloomy rooms" and Andrew's dancing "like a drunken flamingo," replace Shakespeare's more fluid language, trivializing his words. The characters are all included, introduced through pictures at the beginning of each volume, but all but the two main ones remain completely two-dimensional, and the relationships among them are unclear. This is particularly true in Much Ado, a complicated story with incidental characters whose purpose in the play is difficult to discern. For instance, Conrad and Borachio suddenly appear, but there is little sense as to why they are part of the plot against Claudio. The cartoon watercolor renderings, alternating between black-and-white and color, vary from quarter- to half-page in size and suggest the style used by animators. Thus, while they do reinforce the stories, there is a sameness among them, adding to the lack of character development. In fact the characters' images could be interchanged, even between plays, without much confusion. These books are no substitute either for the originals or even for Marchette Chute's classic Stories from Shakespeare (World, 1956; o.p.).-Nancy Menaldi-Scanlan, LaSalle Academy, Providence, RI Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

This volume reprints the Bevington edition of the play along with relevant documents and illustrations, arranged by theme. The texts include facsimiles of period documents, maps, woodcuts, descriptions of the popular customs associated with the play, anti-theatrical tracts, royal proclamations concerning dress, texts on household economics, passages from a Puritan conduct book, excerpts from Ovid and Montaigne, a range of opinions about boy actors, and theories of laughter. The documents contextualize the audience for Shakespeare's play, some of his sources, and competing ideas about music, religion, laughter, and sex. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

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