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The Merchant of Venice [IMPORT] (Paperback)

~ 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...)

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Product Details

Paperback: 132 pages
Publisher: Penguin Books; Rev. Ed edition (1987)
ISBN-10: 0140714219
ISBN-13: 978-0140714210
Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.7 x 0.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.7 ounces

Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (43 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,882,428 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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More About the Authors

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Jennifer Mulherin

William-Alan Landes

Joyce Milton

Harley Granville-Barker

John F. Andrews

Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

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First Sentence:
In sooth I know not why I am so sad. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
third possessor, many men desire, muddy vesture, royal merchant, trial scene

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Lord Bassanio, Enter Portia, Master Launcelot, Enter Bassanio, Launcelot Gobbo, Signor Antonio, Enter Jessica, Enter Lorenzo, Exit Launcelot, Enter Gratiano

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 100 books:

The Merchant Of Venice by William Shakespeare on 28 pages
The Merchant of Venice (Saddleback Classics) by William Shakespeare on 28 pages
Twelfth Night (Folger Shakespeare Library) by William Shakespeare on 4 pages
The Merchant of Venice (Dramascripts) by William Shakespeare on 4 pages
King Lear (The New Folger Library Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare in Front Matter, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)

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100 books cite this book:

Shylock: A Legend and Its Legacy by John Gross on 123 pages
Romeo and Juliet (Signet Classics) by William Shakespeare on 12 pages
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Customer Reviews

43 Reviews

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4.1 out of 5 stars (43 customer reviews)

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Please note
Please note that at the time Shakespeare wrote The Merchant of Venice, Jews had not lived in England for over 300 years having been expelled in 1290 and the expulsion decree not... Read more

Published 2 months ago by David Leone

4.0 out of 5 stars merchant of venice
Not much to say. I received the book on time in the condition explained.

Published 2 months ago by Krystal Pyatt

5.0 out of 5 stars Oxford edition has wonderful notes, and is great to read
It seems to me it is more helpful to rate and review the edition than the play itself, and this edition is superb. Read more

Published 5 months ago by Matthew T. Phillips

3.0 out of 5 stars The Prick That Still Bleeds
Shakespeare has a few dodgy "problem plays" in his amazing oeuvre; "The Merchant Of Venice" is the best-known and most performed of them. Read more

Published 6 months ago by Bill Slocum

5.0 out of 5 stars The unplayable play
As Harold Bloom says, this has become an unplayable play after the Holocaust. This is only an additional reason why one should read it. Read more

Published on January 20, 2007 by Paula Abreu

5.0 out of 5 stars Shakespeare's Comedy/Tragedy of Marriage and its Interrelationships
The New Folger Library of Shakespeare's Tragedies and Comedies are among the best pocket editions available for the student and the journeyman lover of the Bard... Read more

Published on March 21, 2006 by Diana F. Von Behren

5.0 out of 5 stars Context is the king of this comedy!
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE can be described as a tragedy only if one follows the modern definition of "tragedy" and not the Greek. Read more

Published on March 15, 2006 by Gary D. Townsend

5.0 out of 5 stars Reversing our point of view toward the 'Justice'
Anti-festive character who is Shylock on this play sacrificed unjustly. Shylock is a character who is legally invoking his rights as a money-lender among the community which... Read more

Published on December 16, 2005 by Park

5.0 out of 5 stars Time has made Merchant into a tragedy
Shylock is the only sympathetic character in the play. Modernity has altered the villain in "The Merchant of Venice" from Shylock to the entire cast of characters EXCEPT for... Read more

Published on December 5, 2005 by Snick77

5.0 out of 5 stars This Version of Venice
For many people who enjoy classical literature, whether Greek tragedy or Shakespearean comedy, it comes down to which version of the work is the best. Read more

Published on November 24, 2004 by T. Lundregan

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