Reading Order
Twelfth Night Reading Order
Twelfth Night, or What You Will (c. 1601–1602) by William Shakespeare is widely considered the greatest of Shakespeare's comedies — a play about desire's fundamental dislocation, in which no one gets what they think they want, and what arrives in the end is stranger and more satisfying than what was wanted. Viola, shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria and believing her twin brother Sebastian dead, disguises herself as a man named Cesario and enters the service of the love-sick Duke Orsino, who sends her to woo the Countess Olivia. Olivia promptly falls in love with Cesario/Viola; Viola falls in love with Orsino; Sebastian arrives and is mistaken for Cesario by Olivia, who marries him on the spot. Meanwhile, the subplot involves the humiliation of Olivia's pompous steward Malvolio, tricked by the household into thinking Olivia loves him. Feste the clown provides a running commentary on everyone's folly. The play's famous opening ('If music be the food of love, play on') sets the tone for a comedy about the excess of desire and the impossibility of satisfying it. The Malvolio plot generates the play's greatest critical controversy — is his humiliation funny or cruel? — and has generated increasing sympathy for Malvolio from readers who see him as a figure of Puritan earnestness destroyed by aristocratic cruelty.
Where to start
Twelfth Night (c. 1601–1602) — any good scholarly edition. Best reading order: the Arden Third Series (ed. Keir Elam) is the definitive text; Trevor Nunn's 1996 film adaptation with Helena Bonham Carter is one of the best Shakespeare films and an excellent starting point for readers new to the play.
Complete Twelfth Night Book List
- 1Buy
Twelfth Night
William Shakespeare (Arden Third Series, ed. Keir Elam)·2008·The definitive modern scholarly edition — Elam's Arden text with comprehensive notes and the most complete critical apparatus is the standard for serious study - 2Buy
She's the Man
Andy Fickman (dir.)·2006·The teen-comedy film retelling of Twelfth Night — Amanda Bynes plays the Viola figure disguising herself as her twin brother at a boarding school; one of the most successful modern retellings of the play's gender-disguise plot - 3Buy
Orlando
Virginia Woolf·1928·The novel that inhabits Twelfth Night's world of gender fluidity and sexual ambiguity — Woolf's fantasy of a poet who lives for centuries and changes sex is the modernist equivalent of the play's cross-dressing comedy; shares Twelfth Night's concern with the instability of gender and desire - 4Buy
The Merchant of Venice
William Shakespeare·1600·The companion comedy with a similar disguise plot — Portia disguises herself as a lawyer in The Merchant of Venice as Viola disguises herself as Cesario; the two plays are the most important Shakespeare comedies to read alongside each other for their shared exploration of gender disguise and the law - 5Buy
As You Like It
William Shakespeare·1599·The companion comedy with a Rosalind who does what Viola does — Rosalind's disguise as Ganymede in the Forest of Arden is the closest parallel to Viola/Cesario in the Shakespeare canon; the two plays together represent the summit of Shakespeare's romantic comedy - 6Buy
Blithe Spirit
Noël Coward·1941·The 20th century comedy most directly in the spirit of Twelfth Night's world of sexual confusion and the haunting of the living by the unavailable — Coward's ghost comedy shares the play's concern with love that cannot be requited and desire that survives even death
Twelfth Night — Frequently Asked Questions
What is Twelfth Night about?
Twelfth Night (c. 1601–1602) by William Shakespeare tells the story of Viola, who is shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria and disguises herself as a man named Cesario to serve the Duke Orsino. Orsino sends Cesario to woo the Countess Olivia, who falls in love with Cesario instead. Viola falls in love with Orsino. The tangle resolves when Viola's twin Sebastian arrives (believed dead), and Olivia marries Sebastian while Orsino discovers his love for Viola. The subplot follows the humiliation of Olivia's steward Malvolio, tricked into thinking Olivia loves him. The play is widely considered Shakespeare's greatest comedy, celebrated for its opening ('If music be the food of love, play on'), its wit, and its meditation on the instability of desire and gender.
Why is Twelfth Night called Twelfth Night?
The title refers to the twelfth night after Christmas (January 5th, the eve of Epiphany), the final night of Christmas festivities in Shakespeare's England, traditionally associated with revelry, misrule, and the reversal of social order. The subtitle 'or What You Will' is a shrug — 'call it what you like.' The holiday's association with topsy-turvy social inversion (where servants could play masters, and the rules of ordinary life were suspended) fits the play's world of sexual confusion, disguise, and the temporary suspension of ordinary social hierarchies. Twelfth Night was also the date by which the Christmas celebrations were concluded and ordinary order was supposed to return — which makes the play's investigation of what happens when desire doesn't return to order a particularly resonant seasonal comedy.
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