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The Madness of Love
With a sophistication and mischievousness remarkable for a first-time novelist, Katharine Davies takes inspiration from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and raises the curtain on the interconnecting lives and loves of an unforgettable cast of characters. By turns comic and moving, The Madness of Love is a deftly woven tale of mistaken identity, bold moves, and unrequited desires.
Valentina, a clerk in a London bookstore, is still reeling after her twin brother broke a childhood promise and ran off without her to exotic lands. When she cuts her hair, masquerades as a gardener to the melancholic Leo, and moves to the remote seaside town of Illerwick, she perplexes even herself.
Leo dreams of restoring his estate’s gardens to their former glory as a romantically naïve gesture toward the woman he’s loved all his Melody, an English teacher whose beauty bewitches many others. Melody rejects any attempt at capture; she is locked in a state of mourning over the suicide of her dear brother.
As Valentina struggles with the decades-old neglect of flowers, plants, and weeds, her affection for her eccentric employer grows, even as she helps him plot his overture to Melody. The gardens must be made ready for a grand late-summer party. But between now and then, Illerwick will stir with old longings and new desires. As people fall dangerously for those incapable of reciprocating, we see, enchantingly, how our misguided pursuit of passion often distracts us from finding real love.
Valentina, a clerk in a London bookstore, is still reeling after her twin brother broke a childhood promise and ran off without her to exotic lands. When she cuts her hair, masquerades as a gardener to the melancholic Leo, and moves to the remote seaside town of Illerwick, she perplexes even herself.
Leo dreams of restoring his estate’s gardens to their former glory as a romantically naïve gesture toward the woman he’s loved all his Melody, an English teacher whose beauty bewitches many others. Melody rejects any attempt at capture; she is locked in a state of mourning over the suicide of her dear brother.
As Valentina struggles with the decades-old neglect of flowers, plants, and weeds, her affection for her eccentric employer grows, even as she helps him plot his overture to Melody. The gardens must be made ready for a grand late-summer party. But between now and then, Illerwick will stir with old longings and new desires. As people fall dangerously for those incapable of reciprocating, we see, enchantingly, how our misguided pursuit of passion often distracts us from finding real love.
273 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
7 people are currently reading
175 people want to read
About the author
Katharine Davies
4 books1 followerKatharine Davies was born on 1968, and she grew up in a village in Warwickshire, England. She read English and Drama at the University of London and taught English Language and Literature in secondary schools in the UK and also Sri Lanka. After doing an MA in Creative Writing, she moved to Wales to write, for her debut novel, A Good Voyage, she won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by Romantic Novelists' Association sponsored by FosterGrant Reading Glasses. She currently lives in North London.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
January 14, 2016
I’m in the middle of studying Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night with my children, so I thought this re-telling might be a fun read!
Davies’ prose is lovely and quite poetic (although not exactly Shakespearean).
The plot is lifted directly from Shakespeare’s play, and it translates rather badly to a modern setting. Instead of being fanciful and funny, it turns into a soap opera.
The biggest difference is that Valentina doesn’t disguise herself as a man. Let’s be honest, women going in male disguise works well enough in literature and theatre (especially in Shakespeare’s time, when the women were played by men anyway), but it isn’t particularly effective in real life, so I was pleased with this change overall. However, it did lead to a confused lesbian plot, which I’m not entirely convinced was an improvement.
Davies provided many references to the original, apart from the obvious plot points. The story begins on January 6th, a traditional date for the holiday of Twelfth Night. The teens of Illerwick perform the play. Leo, in reference to Duke Orsino’s famous speech, is a musician.
I had a problem with the sexual content of the story. I do not enjoy reading about other people’s sex life, and most of the sexual thoughts and actions in this book were decidedly unsexy. This was particularly true of the Malvolio plot. Davies’ treatment turned one of Shakespeare’s funniest plots into a cringe-worthy tragedy.
Overall, I found this to be an interesting read for a Shakespeare fan, but not a great book on it’s own merits.
Davies’ prose is lovely and quite poetic (although not exactly Shakespearean).
The plot is lifted directly from Shakespeare’s play, and it translates rather badly to a modern setting. Instead of being fanciful and funny, it turns into a soap opera.
The biggest difference is that Valentina doesn’t disguise herself as a man. Let’s be honest, women going in male disguise works well enough in literature and theatre (especially in Shakespeare’s time, when the women were played by men anyway), but it isn’t particularly effective in real life, so I was pleased with this change overall. However, it did lead to a confused lesbian plot, which I’m not entirely convinced was an improvement.
Davies provided many references to the original, apart from the obvious plot points. The story begins on January 6th, a traditional date for the holiday of Twelfth Night. The teens of Illerwick perform the play. Leo, in reference to Duke Orsino’s famous speech, is a musician.
I had a problem with the sexual content of the story. I do not enjoy reading about other people’s sex life, and most of the sexual thoughts and actions in this book were decidedly unsexy. This was particularly true of the Malvolio plot. Davies’ treatment turned one of Shakespeare’s funniest plots into a cringe-worthy tragedy.
Overall, I found this to be an interesting read for a Shakespeare fan, but not a great book on it’s own merits.
March 14, 2016
Maybe if I had read Shakespeare's Twelfth Night after reading Davies' novel I would have better regard for it. But I didn't.
What saved the novel for me was the lead character, Valentina (and not just because of her name). She had the most depth of all the cast because she still had mysteries, visions, and longings. The other characters (Leo Spring, Melody Vye, Fitch) did not grow in my mind beyond their two-dimensional constructs.
What saved the novel for me was the lead character, Valentina (and not just because of her name). She had the most depth of all the cast because she still had mysteries, visions, and longings. The other characters (Leo Spring, Melody Vye, Fitch) did not grow in my mind beyond their two-dimensional constructs.
January 7, 2015
Found it hard work. Nothing really seemed to happen!
August 29, 2021
This novel started slowly ... very slowly. It was almost the middle of the book before the action picked up, the characters started interacting, and the plot began to resemble Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night." Up until then, even though the blurbs on the back told me that it is a retelling of that play, I could barely see any similarities. Eventually, however, I began to see the parallels. Davies chooses not to deal with the implausible woman-masquerading-as-man trope; instead there is confusion about the lovers' sexual preference that causes problems. The hopelessness of each person's love obsession is emphasized; even the secondary plot characters, played here by teenagers, suffer from the "madness of love." I appreciated how the author dealt with the most problematic aspect of the play: the Malvolio character and his tragic downfall. "Twelfth Night" is a very melancholy "comedy" - not one of my favorites - but I did finally enjoy the way it was retold ... with one important caveat: I would have recommended a lot of editing to tighten up the story. (Did I mention how slowly it began?)
November 2, 2022
Oh this was such a lovely, lovely book. Dreamy and sad and slow. A lovely reinterpretation of Twelfth Night, including an ever so charming description of a bunch of kids putting on Twelfth Night with their beloved teacher. All the characters are so real, so lonely, so pained by not getting the life they wanted or expected or yearn for. And it's got such a lovely ending.
LOVELY, OK? That's all I can come up with. Heh.
(Also weirdly, at least according to goodreads, it looks like this same book (pub 2004) was published again in 2010 under a different name: A Good Voyage. WEIRD.)
LOVELY, OK? That's all I can come up with. Heh.
(Also weirdly, at least according to goodreads, it looks like this same book (pub 2004) was published again in 2010 under a different name: A Good Voyage. WEIRD.)
May 21, 2021
A lovely Twelfth Night retelling. I felt very sorry for the Malvolio character - Mr Boase and his part was not played for laughs as it is in original play.
The writing style was lovely. I enjoyed it more on a second read.
The writing style was lovely. I enjoyed it more on a second read.
February 19, 2019
CW for queer suicide
April 9, 2021
Probably better to read it in the original version, Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.
November 3, 2025
I struggled through to the end. The characters were very one-dimensional, the writing was stilted (a lot of short sentences and no flow) and in general it made me feel rather uncomfortable.
February 3, 2024
How do you take one of the queerest of Shakespeare's plays and turn it into this?
May 16, 2021
Melody is a headmistress whose brother Gabriel committed suicide. He loved Leo, who is in love with Melody. Melody falls for Johnathan, twin brother to Valentina, who has come to be Leo's gardener and escape her shadowy life. She is in love with Leo. Meanwhile, Melody's student, Fitch, takes piano lessons from Leo and helps Valentina restore the gardens while he falls for Suzy who appears to like Peter. In this Shakespearian-type story, everything culminates in an end-of-summer party where Fitch becomes the "Puck" character and the truth is revealed to all, with happy ending for everyone but Mr. Boase, a tortured math teacher.
This book had a very unique style. Each chapter was titled by a character's name and never went for more than a few pages. You went back and forth between each of the unique perspectives, but never felt like the story was being truncated. The unrequited love theme was familiar, but somehow worked and kept me turning pages. I loved the Fitch sub-plot as is kept things fresh and light.
This book had a very unique style. Each chapter was titled by a character's name and never went for more than a few pages. You went back and forth between each of the unique perspectives, but never felt like the story was being truncated. The unrequited love theme was familiar, but somehow worked and kept me turning pages. I loved the Fitch sub-plot as is kept things fresh and light.
September 5, 2022
Oh dear. Take Twelfth Night, one of the most delightful of Shakespeares comedies, and bleach almost all of the joy out of it.
This felt bleak, depressing, and subdued, which is such a contrast to the colorful and energetic original.
And this hit one of my pet peeves- the play within the book. I feel that the characters were very well set up, that you know who there Shakespearian counterparts were, but then we had to do a play within the book to make absolutely sure that the reader got the parallels.
Alas, too bad.
This felt bleak, depressing, and subdued, which is such a contrast to the colorful and energetic original.
And this hit one of my pet peeves- the play within the book. I feel that the characters were very well set up, that you know who there Shakespearian counterparts were, but then we had to do a play within the book to make absolutely sure that the reader got the parallels.
Alas, too bad.
February 2, 2016
With a sophistication and mischievousness remarkable for a first-time novelist, Katharine Davies takes inspiration from Shakespeare 19s Twelfth Night and raises the curtain on the interconnecting lives and loves of an unforgettable cast of characters. By turns comic and moving, Not predictibble but not too exciting
July 17, 2009
This book is written as a modern version of a Midsummer Night's Dream. Some very sad people, some inquisitive people, some confused people and lots of confusion caused by others. I like it and I don't usually read this type book.
November 8, 2009
While it took a bit to become interested in the characters, I did like this a lot. The author skips around with telling the story from various points of view but brings it together nicely in the end.
April 8, 2014
This was a lovely read. I liked the people and the story.It was a nicely interwoven play on relationships and the phrase" the webs we weave" would perfectly sum thisbook up. The tiny snippet of information at the end really draws everything together in a neat way.
May 31, 2009
this book was very interesting! love, gardens and sexuality
October 22, 2014
Set in Wales. A modern take on 12th Night.
April 24, 2013
2.5 stars
May 30, 2013
A delicious read. :)
January 1, 2015
It was a wonderful read to start the year off. The writing is very lyrical. It is much more than a love triangle, it is a love whirlwind. I loved it!
December 28, 2012
Delightful! Helps if you know a little about 'Twelfth Night'.
May 31, 2015
"A book with a love triangle"
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews