Publisher Description
The Merchant of Venice revolves around its title merchant, Antonio, but is perhaps
most memorable for the Jewish moneylender Shylock and his passionate cries for the
famous “pound of flesh” that he insists on collecting for Antonio’s debt. Though
classified as a comedy, and inevitably love and happiness do prevail, The Merchant of Venice is a complicated play
whose intensely dramatic scenes often overshadow the comic ones; it is no
wonder why it remains one of Shakespeare’s most famous, and controversial,
plays.
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About William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare (1564–1616), English poet and dramatist of the Elizabethan and early Jacobean period, is the most widely known author in all of English literature and often considered the greatest. He was an active member of a theater company for at least twenty years, during which time he wrote many great plays. Plays were not prized as literature at the time and Shakespeare was not widely read until the middle of the eighteenth century, when a great upsurge of interest in his works began that continues today.
About Ghizela Rowe
Ghizela Rowe has worked in broadcast
television for thirty years on a broad range of programming. Her specialization
is in music. She helps run the Copyright Group, an extensive collection of
master recording rights, and has lent her voice to many audiobooks, including The Poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning,
Elizabeth Gaskell: The Short Stories, and The Romantics: An Introduction.