The Merchant of Venice: The Applause Shakespeare Library (Paperback)

by William Shakespeare (Author) "In sooth I know not why I am so sad..." (more)
Key Phrases: third possessor, many men desire, muddy vesture, Lord Bassanio, Enter Portia, Master Launcelot (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
... yours was by far the best product at the show! (LA Book Expo) -- Book Buyer

Presenting literature in such an accessible and visually arresting way is, to my mind, a considerable achievement. Immensely appealing! -- Kenneth Branagh, actor/director

This is the perfect gift, to give or receive. I've had mine framed, and draws people like a magnet -- Amazon Customer --This text refers to the Poster edition.

Review

"Handy, reliable, altogether excellent...with introductions that truly cover everything and notes that explain all that needs to be explained."--Bibliotheque d'Humanisme et Renaissance
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Applause Books (January 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557833885
• ISBN-13: 978-1557833884
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #521,244 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The question is - is this a drama or a comedy?, February 21, 2005

By	Craig Matteson (Ann Arbor, MI) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Merchant of Venice (Arden Shakespeare: Second Series) (Paperback)

What scholars today call "The Problem Plays" seem to me to be problems more for us because of our changed sensibilities from those of Elizabethan London rather than problems in the plays themselves. "The Merchant of Venice" is called anti-Semitic by eminent scholars such as Harold Bloom. In our post-Holocaust age and our sensitivity to stereotypes of all sorts, Shylock bothers us in a way not dissimilar to watching the great Al Jolson perform in blackface. That is, it is clearly the work of a great entertainer, but it jars us, makes us wince, and we are (justly) unable to watch with the same enjoyment as the audience for whom the work was created.

Still, this is Shakespeare and Shylock is immortal. When I read through the play, I place Shylock as "the other" rather than as a caricature of the Jewish race. More than that, he is simply a vicious person irrespective of his ethnic ties and origins. I do like Bloom's insistence that this play was written as a dark comedy and was performed as such for centuries. The editor of this edition, John Russell Brown also states this. At some time around the 19th century, Shylock acquired pathos and the play has been performed as a drama ever since.

Does it work as a drama? You will have to answer that for yourself. However, if you insist on a moral drama you will have a great many moral contradictions to settle that do not matter as much if the play is done more for simple cleverness and laughs. Can we really take seriously the casket game that Portia's late father left her as the way she must select her spouse? Does Antonio (the Merchant of Venice) seem a proper embodiment of Christian values?

To me, the play does seem awfully light hearted with all of its darkness given to Shylock. He is a villain with infinitely more substance than Snidely Whiplash, but provides much the same function. He must be hated; he must be spat upon and jeered by the audience to fill his role. And he must lose in the end. Not because others are more virtuous (any serious analysis of the play shows everyone in the play wanting in virtue), but simply because he is the bad guy.

Portia is the wonder of the play. Her glow is so bright that it is obvious she is light to Shylock's darkness. Her defeat of Shylock is acceptable in a comedy, in a serious drama she seems to have gone too far considering what is really involved.

In any case, this play has delighted audiences for centuries and will continue to do so. It is a great read and this critical edition aids the reader's understanding. The opening essay is fine and the appendices showing the various sources of the tale are also interesting in helping us see the genius of Shakespeare in what he developed on his own and how he wove the various components into this masterpiece.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rami's Book Review for the Merchant of Venice, March 21, 2002

By	rami leblanc (LA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Merchant of Venice (Folger Shakespeare Library) (Mass Market Paperback)

I really enjoyed this play, but then again I always enjoy Shakespeare's plays. The man is a genius. Anyway, The Merchant of Venice follows the story of Antonio, a merchant who loans money to his friend Bassanio so that Bassanio may woo the heiress Portia. In order for Bassanio to gain the lady's hand, however, he must correctly choose the right gilded casket, a riddle given to Portia by her late father. He picks the lead casket, which just happens to be the right one. Meanwhile, in order to get the money Antonio asks the help of a Jew named Shylock who is out for revenge because Antonio is a Christian. He makes Antonio promise to give him a pound of his flesh if he does not pay Shylock back. Shylock's daughter Jessica elopes with Lorenzo and this also makes Shylock angry, mostly because Lorenzo is a Christian. Portia and Bassanio get married as do Portia's assitant Nerissa and Antonio's friend Gratiano. When he fails to pay back the forfeit, a trial is held to find out if Antonio deserves to have a pound of his flesh taken out of him and at this trial Portia and Nerissa dress up as a doctor and a clerk to fool their husbands and the other men by asking for their own wedding rings. They succeed in letting Antonio get away with his life and say that the life of Shylock is in the hands of the Duke, who makes the Jew give all his money to Bassanio and Antonio.
I recommend this play to others and also all of Shakespeare's other plays. If you can get into them they are good reads.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A problem play disguised as a comedy, March 11, 2001

By	William Krischke (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Merchant of Venice (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)

Not in my top tier of Shakespeare plays, but there are some interesting things here.

Maybe the real point of this play is the need for forgiveness and mercy. Hurt people hurt people. Shylock seems evil - "the devil incarnate", one of the characters calls him, yet one of the most powerful moments in the play is his "Hath a Jew not eyes?" speech. He is badly, deeply wounded. All of the hate and bitterness and desire for death that he carries is a result of the way he has been slandered, abused, and injured by the people around him. Much of this abuse goes on during the play, though little of it by Antonio. Antonio clearly despises Shylock's way of making money - usury - and it's possible that his harsh words have nothing to do with Shylock's religion, only with his profession. (though historians say it is nearly impossible to separate the two - Jews were usurers and usurers were Jews. There wasn't much else the government allowed them to do.)

A forgivness/mercy reading places at the center of the play both Shylock's speech, and Portia's beautiful speech on the quality of mercy at the trial. The decisions by the Duke and Antonio to have mercy upon Shylock when the tables turn. Perhaps, as some critics have said, Antonio's condition that Shylock become a Christian is not an attempt to rob him of his identity, but to make him like the rest of them, and thus welcome him in. Doubtful that it works - it's hard to see Shylock leave, nearly ill at the end, and know that there is really no justice for him. His wounds are real.

The romantic comedy element of the play really isn't that great -- especially the ring manipulation at the end. Not only is it tiresome, it's absolutely clunky to have Graziano and Nerissa mirroring their masters.

There are some interesting things swirling around the chests. When the right chest turns out to be "Who chooseth me must give and hazard a much all he hath," this seems to reinforce the theme of mercy and forgiveness taking place in the foreground. Though I was disappointed that Bassanio didn't enlighten us as to how this was the truth of marriage, the message is nonetheless there, if subtle.