This new volume in the Shakespeare: The Critical Tradition increases our knowledge of how Twelfth Night was received and understood by critics, editors and general readers. The volume offers, in separate sections, both critical opinions about the play across the centuries and an evaluation of their positions within and their impact on the reception of the play. The volume features criticism from key literary figures such as Thomas De Quincey, Charles Knight, Mary Cowden Clarke, Charles Lamb, George Bernard Shaw and Caroline F. E. Spurgeon. The chronological arrangement of the text-excerpts engages the readers in a direct and unbiased dialogue, whereas the introduction offers a critical evaluation from a current stance, including modern theories and methods. The volume makes a major contribution to our understanding of the Twelfth Night and of the traditions of Shakespearean criticism surrounding it as they have developed from century to century.

James Schiffer is Professor Emeritus of English at SUNY New Paltz, USA. He has published essays on various poems and plays by Shakespeare and edited collections of essays on Shakespeare's Sonnets (1999) and Twelfth Night (2011).