Introduced by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, this anthology is a celebration of poetry and the passion it inspires. It gathers together more than 300 of our favourite poems, spanning over 400 years.
Twelfth Night
Illustrated by Anna and Elena Balbusso
This large-format gift edition of one of Shakespeare’s best-loved romantic comedies features an exquisite new frontispiece by the Balbusso twins.
$120.00
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Twelfth Night, or What You Will is a comic masterpiece. In the first of a new Folio series, Shakespeare's most popular comedy is presented in a lavish edition illustrated by the Balbusso twins. Exquisitely bound and sensitively typeset, this edition is a celebration of a timeless work.
In Tudor times, twelfth night was the feast of 'misrule' marking the end of Christmas festivities, where the natural order was often turned topsy-turvy. Shakespeare's plot includes a servant seeking to marry his mistress, women dressed as men and attendant confusions and mistakes - all favourite examples which hark back to the Roman feast of Saturnalia. Shakespeare may well have written the play for a court entertainment performed in 1601 (finding his Duke's name from the Duke Orsini who had visited court that year). Many commentators believe that his portrait of the killjoy Malvolio was intended to poke fun at the Puritans who disapproved of twelfth night festivities - and indeed of the theatre itself.
Production Details
Bound in blocked buckram with a printed paper label
Set in Baskerville with Caslon display
92 pages
Colour frontispiece
Printed slipcase
13½˝ x 9¼˝
About Anna and Elena Balbusso
Anna and Elena Balbusso are an internationally recognised team of Italian artists. Together they have received more than 70 international awards, including the New York Society of Illustrators’ Steven Dohanos Award and the Los Angeles Society of Illustrators’ Joseph Morgan Henninger Award. For three consecutive years (2011–13) they were awarded the Gold Medal in the book category of the Society of Illustrators Awards: in 2012 for their work on the Folio Society edition of The Handmaid’s Tale. In 2013 they won the Book Illustration category at the V&A Illustration Awards for their work on the Folio edition of Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin (2012). They have also illustrated The Song of Roland (2010), First Love (2010), Pride and Prejudice (2013), The Queen of Spades and Other Stories (2014), Twelfth Night (2016) and Atlas Shrugged (2018) for The Folio Society.
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