Remembering Dame Maggie Smith (1934-2024)

Dame Maggie Smith, one of the most accomplished actresses of all time, passed away yesterday from undisclosed causes.  She began her acting career at 17 as Viola in Twelfth Night at the Oxford Playhouse in 1952. She made her television debut in Oxford Accents in 1954. Smith made her Broadway debut playing in the New Faces of '56 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre from June to December 1956.  In 1956, she appeared in her firsts film in an uncredited role in Child in the House.

Dame Smith won her first Academy Award in 1969 for Best Actress for her performance in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.  Her second Oscar was in 1978 for Best Supporting Actress for her work in California Suite.

She won four Primetime Emmy Awards, three of them for her role in Downton Abbey. She won a Tony Award in 1990 for her work in Lettice and Lovage.  She is one of few performers to win the Triple Crown of Acting: Oscar, Tony, Emmy.

Her final film The Miracle Club was released last year.

This clip from the Carol Burnett Show is one of my favorites to show her comedic talent.

Thirteenth Night by Alan Gordon

Alan Gordon's novel Thirteenth Night is a speculative fiction based on the characters of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. In December of 1200, some fifteen years after the events in the Bard's play, Feste learns that Duke Orsino of Illyria has died, unexpectedly and under mysterious circumstances.

He returns to Illyria in the disguise of a German merchant to find out what happened to the former duke and what will happen to the dukedom since the new duke is too young and a regent will have to be named.

Another member of the Guild, to which Feste belongs, shows up to help him discover the truth. I found Gordon's depiction of the Guild to be most interesting. According to the author, it was a group of fools trained in the arts of entertaining such as juggling, singing, telling stories, but they also acted behind the scenes spying and manipulating events as they felt necessary much like Frank Herbert's Bene Gesserit in his Dune series.

Feste realizes that much has changed since he left Illyria a decade and a half ago, especially the people any of which could be his chief suspect and old foe, Malvolio.

I am not familiar with Shakespeare's Twelfth Night enough to make connections between the play and the book, and that seemed to be a slight detriment to my enjoying this novel more. But even if one is no so well-versed on the Bard, this is still a very entertaining mystery with twists, turns and an ending to satisfy all fans of whodunits.

Gordon does a meticulous and excellent job of describing medieval Italian customers, settings and the political climates of the times. He incorporates the international events and governmental environments during that era that give the reader a brief history lesson in very early fourteenth century Italy.

Thirteenth Night is a great read, and although slow starting, soon becomes an exciting page turner to the last.