I read this as part of Tea & Ink Society’s Shakespeare in a Year Challenge for 2025. My first time experiencing the play, I listened to the Naxos audio version, which was great. This time, I watched the 1996 film starring Imogen Stubbs, which is extremely well done.

This story isn’t meant to be believable. It’s meant to convey a human experience, and the central questions of identity, excess, and honesty are so interesting.

It’s got the same lightness and humor of Dream, but none of the magic. It’s set firmly in the real world, and all of the antics occur due to practical joking or classic Shakespearean misunderstandings (they really are the best).

This is such an amazing commentary on love and disguise! And it’s got a great wise fool.

The second time I read the play, I “got” the subplot, the one with Malvolio and Sir Toby and Maria. It mirrors the high plot, but it has this tragi-comic trajectory that makes you feel uncomfortable about the trickery, and you’re forced to ask why it doesn’t sit well. Why is it different from what Viola is doing? I’m always amazed by the depth in these plays.

The first time I read this, I consulted a few summaries from several children’s summaries and retellings, trying to land on a good homeschool resource for my kids. Here are my impressions of those:

1. Charles and Mary Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare. This was the most thorough and extensive, and it did the best job of preserving much of Shakespeare’s language and elevated tone and diction. It’s more formal, offers some commentary, and is best suited to a read-aloud for young kids, as there are no pictures in my version, and the paragraphs are very long and intimidating.

2. A Stage Full of Shakespeare Stories: 12 Tales from the Bard Retold for Children by Angela McAllister. This was the shortest retelling, and I liked the colorful illustrations on every page and the Cast of Characters reference page (Antonio, Cesario, Orsino, Malvolio, Olivia…their names contain all the same letters, so confusing!!!) This one also preserved several of the most famous quotes, but I felt like the retelling itself was a tad dry because the plot was reordered for simplicity.

3. The Usborne Complete Shakespeare: Stories from All the Plays. I actually enjoyed this easy, fluid retelling, which is great for very young kids. I liked that the presentation of the plot aligned closely with the play. There is only one illustration spread per play, so not as much to look at here for younger kids.