BOOK REVIEW: Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare, Folger Library edition

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As part of the Shakespeare 2020 reading challenge (see THIS post for more info), I started off 2020 by reading Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare.

Please note:

THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS

if you aren't familiar with the story line of Twelfth Night. 

I read Twelfth Night in high school, and frankly, I remember enjoying it a lot more. The play is one of Shakespeare's comedies and centers around deception and mistaken identities, as well as love triangles, with a bit of mischief thrown in. 

As one of my tutoring students put it, many of Shakespeare's plays -- especially the comedies -- start out and end with a lot of action and the middle is almost all explication and background. I found this particularly true of Twelfth Night. I loved the beginning and the ending, but the middle was just a slog. While I suppose some of the mischief and trickery involved was necessary to heighten the main comedic aspects of the love triangles set up earlier in the play, I found that these portions overshadowed the rest of the play and the main story: the separation of siblings who believe each other dead and the love triangles based on mistaken and disguised identities. 

I really wanted more at the end of the play -- more action surrounding the unmasking (of sorts) of Viola, more around the reunion with her brother, Sebastian, and more tension between Orsino and Olivia.

There are definitely comedic aspects to the play, but it really confirmed that I very much prefer Shakespeare's tragedies over his comedies. 

I am officially quite far behind in the reading plan for the challenge, but hope to eventually catch up. I started reading Henry VI, Part I last night, and I LOVE IT! This is my first time reading Henry VI, and I wish I'd picked it up sooner! 

A couple of notes about reading the plays of Shakespeare:

1. Although plays are meant to be watched, heard, read aloud, I find great enjoyment in reading them. There's quite a bit of controversy in one of the online reading groups I participate in with regard to reading plays in general. I love it.
2. I specifically chose to read the Folger Library editions of all of Shakespeare's work, unless I am unable to get my hands on a copy. While there are may editions available, I particularly like Folger's approach to the material. Each book starts with several explanatory sections, including a brief overview of the specific play in the book, and each also has a brief synopsis of each Act and Scene at the start of each part of the play. Additionally, on the left page, specific vocabulary and notes are listed by line to assist in understanding as you read. The right page contains the text as closely to the original as makes sense (the prefaces include notes about changes that may have been made to the texts and why).

What is your favorite work by Shakespeare? Is there a particular edition that you like over others? Drop a note and let me know!