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The Merchant of Venice

A Norton Critical Edition
By William Shakespeare
Series: Norton Critical Editions
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Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare is a classic play set in Renaissance Venice. It centres on the merchant Antonio and the complex figure of Shylock, a Jewish moneylender whose demands lead to a dramatic and thought-provoking conflict. Themes of justice, mercy, prejudice, and the nature of contracts are explored through lively characters and intricate plot developments.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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This Norton Critical Edition is ideal for students, scholars, and readers interested in Shakespearean drama and historical context, especially those keen to explore themes of anti-Semitism and cultural interpretation in literature.

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The Merchant of Venice is one of Shakespeare’s most beautiful plays and, conversely, his ugliest. Juxtaposed within the same conceptual frame are heavenly and musical harmonies, romantic love, materialism, and racism.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

This Norton Critical Edition has been carefully edited to make The Merchant of Venice, its surrounding history, and the history of its critical reception and rewritings accessible to readers. The text of this edition is based on the 1600 First Quarto, with light editing and substantial explanatory annotations by Leah S. Marcus.

Sources and Contexts largely focuses on the character of Shylock and the issue of anti-Semitism in the play. Materials included are diverse, and at times contradictory, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions. Examples include seventeenth-century anti-Semitic literature, an essay from the same period defending Jews and arguing for their repatriation in England, an examination of the Christian theology of the play, and readings of The Merchant of Venice as exclusionary for Jews, women, and people of colour.

Criticism collects twenty-one diverse interpretations. In addition to Shylock and the question of anti-Semitism, these essays address The Merchant of Venice in the context of postcolonial, feminist, and queer theory and explore relevant issues of economic status and organisation.

Rewritings and Appropriations includes excerpts from dramatic, musical, and other literary adaptations of The Merchant of Venice, as well as a selection of poems, most of them from the twentieth century, on the character of Shylock.

A Selected Bibliography is also included.

Series: Norton Critical Editions

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780393925296

Publisher: WW Norton & Co

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 27 December 2005

Country: United States

Imprint: WW Norton & Co

Edition: Critical edition

Contributors:

  • Edited by Leah S. Marcus

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 20.0mm

Width: 132.0mm

Height: 213.0mm

Weight: 361g

Pages: 368

Collections

Arts & Culture Classic Poetry Non-Fiction Series: Norton Critical Editions William Shakespeare

About the Author

Leah S. Marcus is Edwin Mims Professor of English at Vanderbilt University. She is the author of Childhood and Cultural Despair, The Politics of Mirth, Puzzling Shakespeare, and Unediting the Renaissance. She has edited two volumes of the writings of Queen Elizabeth I (with Janel Mueller and Mary Beth Rose), a Norton Critical Edition of The Merchant of Venice, and an Arden Early Modern Drama text of John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi.

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