Customer Reviews

Shylock, the Roman: Unmasking Shakespeare's the Merchant of Venice

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Until this book I had practically no familiarity with Shakespeare at all, much less with the Merchant of Venice. So reading Merchant for me was reading it with a fresh eye. The whole thing struck me as a wonderful mystery with twists and turns not unlike an Escher drawing. Truth is I couldn't appreciate the old literary controversy about anti-Semitism in the characterization of Shylock -- I had never heard of Shylock. All I knew, while I was reading the book, was that a mystery was being skillfully unraveled for met piece by piece. All in all it was great fun -- like listening to somebody who really knows what they're doing think out loud about a very complex problem they're solving. Voila! In the end old Shylock, instead of a revengefull jew who simply cuts off parts of people's body's in payment for an overdue debt, in fact, turns out to be the personification of ancient Roman honor. Yikes. What a switch! As Shakespeare -- and author Schneider -- said: Nothing is as it appears. Fun read.

I was very confused after the first time I read and watched The Merchant of Venice. I strongly sympathized with Shylock, but I was unsure whether Shakespeare intended for the Jew to be the hero. Reading some of the mainstream criticism was no help - the critics seemed to be even more clueless than I. But now, after reading Shylock the Roman, I wonder why I had previously been so oblivious to the obvious. Thanks to Robert Schneider's Shylock the Jew, I finally understand the Merchant of Venice.

However, I don't agree with every idea in this book - it would be less fun if I did. Now, standing on the firm foundation of understanding that Shylock the Roman has given me, I have the confidence to disagree even with Schneider himself on some points.

I highly recommend this book. And after you read it, I would appreciate it if you would email me to discuss and debate the meaning of The Merchant of Venice.

- Ray Eston Smith Jr

My email is thyorison@yahoo.com. ("thyorison" is derived from Hamlet's "In thy orisions be all my sins remembered.")

The author has one very good idea and that is that Shylock is masked. But all of his conclusions are the result of a dominant culture reading. They are superficial. I would not recommend this book for a deep understanding of the subject.