Customer Reviews

The Fool's Girl

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Celia Rees is a subtle writer.She never lets her extensive research get in the way of an exciting story. Violetta has an almost overwhelming task but she grows into a realisation that the men she meets can only give her limited assistance, quite often reluctantly as they know what forces are ranged against her.What a great introduction to Shakespeare for any young adult who has not had the chance to enter his fascinating world.This book stands alone - you don't have to have read or seen 'Twelfth Night' to enjoy this novel but it will make the inquisitive reader want to know more.

Celia Rees always writes interesting and original stories, and the Fool's Girl is no exception. I find her stories involving, detailed, dramatic and intense, and she manages to make even 'history' interesting. Ms Rees can take a fairly simple story and somehow add a kind of 'depth' to it. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a good story that is well written.

Twelfth Night was the first Shakespeare play I ever saw, and it remains my very favorite. I was in seventh grade and had been nervous about my own capacity to understand Shakespeare's language. But as soon as the local university production of the comedy began, I was instantly hooked by the romance, the humor, the mistaken identities --- and, yes, by the language, too. The quick-witted Viola, the pompous Malvolio with his ridiculous yellow stockings, the boisterous Sir Toby Belch, and the surprisingly complicated Fool, Feste, all combined to make me fall in love with the Bard.

And apparently I'm not alone in my affection for Twelfth Night. Popular author Celia Rees has used the play as the inspiration for her new novel, THE FOOL'S GIRL, providing in her typically detailed, well-researched style both a sequel of sorts to the play and a dramatic explanation of how and why Shakespeare chose to dramatize this story.

Short version of Shakespeare's play: Shipwreck victim Viola washes ashore, disguises herself as a boy to gain entry to the court of Duke Orsino, who pines for the countess Olivia even as Viola secretly longs for Orsino himself. When he sends the disguised Viola to plight his troth, Olivia falls for the young messenger instead. Much confusion ensues, but ultimately Orsino and Viola are wed, as are Olivia and Viola's long-lost twin brother, Sebastian.

In Rees's novel, Illyria, where Twelfth Night is set, is a real place, known primarily for its possession of a holy relic, the container in which one of the Magi brought a gift to the infant Jesus. But Malvolio, who, since the events eventually memorialized by Shakespeare, has become not only arrogant but also cruel, has stolen the relic and, in the wake of a rebellion staged by Sebastian, left Illyria for England with prisoners in tow. He's bent on seizing another mystical item --- a fortune-telling stone --- and on making life as miserable as possible for Violetta (daughter of Orsino and Viola) and Stephano (son of Olivia and Sebastian). Violetta, accompanied by Feste, is determined to retrieve the relic and restore it to her home country (and, she hopes, restore Illyria's fortunes as well). She and Feste have hatched a plan for the young playwright William Shakespeare to help them. But is it possible that Violetta's childhood friend Stephano has betrayed her? Can she trust him with her secrets --- and with her heart?

Rees's affection for Shakespeare's play shines through every page of THE FOOL'S GIRL. She has provided readers with countless well-researched details about Shakespeare's London, the culture of Elizabethan performance, and the plays themselves. Told in an engaging narrative style that travels forward and backward chronologically and that allows a half-dozen characters to share storytelling duties, the novel unfolds briskly and suspensefully. Like Shakespeare's plays, it treads the line between lyrical and bawdy, as Rees uses earthy humor that would undoubtedly have appealed to Shakespeare's audiences as much as it will to the youth of today.

Although THE FOOL'S GIRL will be of most interest to students who have already read Shakespeare's play, it can still be read and enjoyed by those who long for romance, drama, and a heady mix of history, magic and literature.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

THE FOOL'S GIRL has all the ingredients readers will expect from Celia Rees - vividly-drawn settings, an intriguing plot with plenty of twists and turns, a spirited heroine, a story that is full of pace but never rushed. It's a brilliant idea to imagine Shakespeare's meeting with Violetta and Feste, and to conjecture how TWELFTH NIGHT might have developed from the ingredients he's given. There is usually darkness at the heart of comedy, and that's particularly true of TWELFTH NIGHT, with the tragic figure of Malvolio left brooding and resentful at the end. That bitterness is the trigger for the events depicted here - his long-held grudge, and its implications for Violetta, the daughter of Shakespeare's Viola. It's a story of great appeal, particularly (but not only) for those readers who know TWELFTH NIGHT. I wonder if Celia Rees is planning "prequels" or companion pieces to other Shakespeare plays? The possibilities are exhilarating.

`The Fool's Girl' is a dark take on Shakespeare's `Twelfth Night'. It's told in a number of different voices, and begins with Violetta, Viola's daughter, describing the sack of her city by Venetian and Uskok pirates led by none other than her own uncle Sebastian.

Celia Rees explores the currents of cruelty, melancholy and madness flowing under the play's lyrical surface sparkle, and weaves a fast moving story in which Violetta has to flee Illyria with Feste the fool as her companion. Arriving in London she finds other Illyrian refugees: Sir Toby Belch on his toper's deathbed; the raddled Maria still his faithful carer. Violetta has come to London for one purpose - to reclaim a sacred relic stolen by Malvolio from the Illyrian cathedral. But she's in constant danger from the powers now ruling Illyria, and she's going to need all the help Master Shakespeare can provide. In turn, as Will Shakespeare learns her history, he garners wonderful material for a new play - Twelfth Night - in which he will transform the iron and lead of real life into glittering gold.

I thought this was a brilliant novel, and a great exploration of Shakespeare's play by a writer who clearly knows plenty about Elizabethan England. The world of `The Fool's Girl' is darker and more dangerous than the world of `Twelfth Night': this is the `real' historical England in which severed heads sit on spikes along London Bridge, while Sir Robert Cecil plays European power politics (and tries to make Shakespeare his pawn). At the same time there's magic in the book, the sort of magic Elizabethans believed in: and hints of an older world, of the worship of Hecate, and of fairies in the Warwickshire woods...

Celia Rees strikes gold again with this brilliant re-imagining of a sequel to Shakespeare's Twelth Night. Picking up on the darker undertones and hints of discontent in that story, Rees sets out a tale that twists and turns from the almost dreamlike state of Ilyria through the narrow and dangerous streets of Elizabethan London. Once again, the author has let her superlative imagination run riot to produce an original and innovative tale. This book is required reading for anyone tackling Shakespeare at GCSE (and would probably also be helpful to A-Level students), obviously particularly to those studying Twelth Night but also to students of the other comedies.

While I do not necessarily agree with all of the decisions Rees made in her composition of this novel, I do think her interpretation was incredibly interesting. Her analysis of the hasty marriages between Viola & Orsino and Olivia & Stephano at the end of the play certainly seems spot on to me. Her use of Malvolio and Sir Andrew Agueface as harsh villains I have more trouble accepting. As I know the play so well, I have trouble picturing Malvolio without cross-gartered with yellow stockings and Sir Andrew as capable of using a sword.

Rees does a good job creating some of the atmosphere of the play and its characters (Feste in particular is spot on). The book is definitely less comedic though, so do not expect it to be just the same. Rees conveys the spirit of the time fairly accurately in most instances, although sometimes I wish she had not; I have trouble escaping my silly modern sensibilities, which feel that first cousins should in no instance have a romantic relationship (Oh wait, they're not silly: hemophilia). Cousins aside, this book is a great choice for any Shakespeare fans. I think Rees tackles of writing a sequel to the bard without being overly silly or overly pedantic. Check this one out, thou of good taste!

Violetta and her companion, Feste, are far away from home. Memories of Illyria and the state in which they left the country haunt their dreams. Their quest is daunting - perhaps impossible.

An ancient relic, considered sacred by the Illyrian people, has been stolen. The evil Malvolio has left Illyria in shambles and run off with the holy artifact. It is Violetta's duty as noblewoman to restore Illyria to greatness, but can it be done?

Violetta and Feste must devise a plan, and they will need the help of many people to complete their task.

Celia Rees has put an interesting spin on Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT. The story is told from several different characters point of view, including that of William Shakespeare himself. In exchange for Violetta's story, Shakespeare vows to help her find the missing relic and deliver her safely back to Illyria.

Young female readers will appreciate Violetta's strength and courage. She is willing to do anything to restore her country and its people. This is definitely a great addition to Rees' already outstanding body of work.

Reviewed by: LadyJay

A young woman emerges from the sea, a lone survivor from a shipwreck, onto a foreign land. To preserve her virtue she presents herself to the Duke of Illyria as a man. In this disguise many mix-ups and mistaken identities are plotted through before Viola is able to reveal her true self to Orsino, the man she loves. Thus the story of Violetta's parents is portrayed by Shakespeare. But what has Shakespeare to do with Violetta, and what is she doing so far from home in England?

The Fool's Girl is many things, Stephano's girl, Viola's daughter, Duchessa of Illyra's, but she is no Fool's Girl. I really wanted to like this book, there are so many elements that on their own are exciting and mysterious and if explored more would have been very interesting. There are pirates, politics, Shakespeare, allusions to faeries, and love. Unfortunately the end product is a story of a girl who is always protected by one shinning knight or another.