As I have said in another post, Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is not my favorite of his comedies, although it has its moments. The sword fight between Sir Andre Aguecheek and an inexperienced Viola disguised as a boy is quite hilarious. However, I always feel sorry for Malvolio, a character who is not really malevolent as much as he is misguided and inadequate. SInce I often feel misguided and inadequate myself, and since I don’t like practical jokes that take advantage of my or others’ weaknesses, Twelfth Night generally leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I’m laughing at Malvolio, and even poor Sir Andrew, in spite of my better instincts.

Nevertheless, this month and last seem to be the appointed time for me to gain a better appreciation of Shakespeare’s play. First I saw a production of Twelfth Night at Winedale in August. Then, I came home to find a copy of The Fool’s Girl by Celia Rees waiting on my TBR shelf. Of course, I had to read it as a follow-up to the play. And in fact, Ms. Rees’s novel is a sort of sequel to Twelfth Night. The main character, Violetta, is the daughter of Count Orsino and the Lady Viola, and as our story opens, Violetta is a refugee from her native country, Illyria. Her city has been conquered and sacked by the Venetians, and Feste, the jester, is Violetta’s only friend and protector as she wanders the streets of Elizabethan London. Violetta and Feste happen to meet Master Shakespeare and ask for his help in reclaiming Violetta’s rightful inheritance and righting old wrongs, and the story continues from there.

In an afterword, Celia Rees says that Twelfth Night is her favorite Shakespearean comedy. “While I was watching, I began to wonder: What happens next? What happens after the end of the play? The play walks a knife’s edge between tragedy and comedy. It is perfectly balanced, but one false move and it could all go horribly wrong.” In Rees’s sequel, it does all go horribly wrong. People go insane and betray one another. Sir Toby and Maria become flawed but sympathetic characters, while the wronged Malvolio becomes perfectly evil and completely unsympathetic. The world of Illyria is turned upside down, and it’s up to Violetta, Feste, and Master Shakespeare to set things right.

I enjoyed Ms. Rees’s sequel even though it did partake of the darkness and the equivocal nature of Shakepeare’s play. Ms. Rees writes, “The Fool’s Girl wasn’t always called that. For a long time it was called Illyria.” The idea of a mystical (and rather dark) place named Illyria captured the imagination of more than one Young Adult novelist this year. In Elizabeth Hand’s brief novel, Illyria, cousins Rogan and Madeline inhabit a mystical world of the mind with a physical location in the attic of Rogan’s home. They also participate in a high school production of Twelfth Night, Madeline starring as Viola and Rogan as the wise fool Feste. Rogan and Madeline are fascinating characters, but the book as a whole was not as successful in making me feel things or think thoughts as either Shakespeare’s play or Celia Rees’s historical fiction. Mostly, Illyria made me uncomfortable, not because Rogan and Madeline are “incestuous” first cousins, but rather because they have a strange and unfathomable relationship that seems based on physical attraction but also attempts to transcend the physical without ever quite being able to do so. It was weird and creepy, and the fact that the two cousins are engaging in an illicit sexual relationship only makes the story more awkward and fraught with tension. Rogan is talented but self-destructive, and Madeline ends up a thwarted and unloved second tier actress. The characters and their actions are realistic, but I failed to understand what their lives meant or what I felt about their choices, except that as I said before, I felt uncomfortable. That feeling may have been the author’s main intent.

Bottom line: I would recommend Rees’s The Fool’s Girl to anyone interested in Twelfth Night and Shakespearean fiction and ideas. The book is somewhat dark and dances along the edges of dismal and black magic, but the ending is bittersweet with an emphasis on the sweet and comedic. Illyria by Elizabeth Hand is a bit more problematic, and I didn’t enjoy it very much although I did try. Maybe Colleen’s thoughts on Illyria at Chasing Ray would be more helpful if you are trying to decide whether to read this one or not. She loved it; I’d give it a pass if I were choosing again.