The Merchant of Venice

Name: The Merchant of Venice
Brand: Naxos
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4.17 (6 reviews)
Author: William Shakespeare
ISBN: 9789629547646

Author: William Shakespeare

Narrator: Antony Sher, Roger Allam, Emma Fielding, and cast

Unabridged: 2 hr 29 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Naxos

Published: 09/29/2008

Categories: Fiction, Drama

Synopsis

Shylock, a Jewish moneylender, agrees to lend Antonio, a Venetian merchant, three thousand ducats so that his friend Bassanio can afford to court his love, Portia. However, Shylock has one condition: should the loan go unpaid, he will be entitled to a pound of Antonio’s own flesh. Meanwhile in Belmont, according to the terms of her father’s will, Portia’s many suitors must choose correctly from three caskets. Bassanio arrives at Portia’s estate and they declare their love for one another before he picks the correct casket. Antonio falls into bad fortune and finds he cannot repay Shylock: a dramatic trial ensues to decide his fate.

About William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on England’s Avon River. When he was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway. The couple had three children—an older daughter Susanna and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died in childhood. The bulk of Shakespeare’s working life was spent in the theater world of London, where he established himself professionally by the early 1590s. He enjoyed success not only as a playwright and poet, but also as an actor and shareholder in an acting company. Although some think that sometime between 1610 and 1613 Shakespeare retired from the theater and returned home to Stratford, where he died in 1616, others believe that he may have continued to work in London until close to his death.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Ren on April 21, 2024

A Midsummer Night's Dream I can't even rate this because I don't think I've ever read anything else that left zero impact. Which I guess is something of an accolade if you squint. Started off promising and then promptly went absolutely nowhere and then it was over. Almost like a (~cracks a sardonic......more

Goodreads review by Nour on December 14, 2024

The plays are Shakespeare, but the notes just didn't feel very helpful at all. Really didn't need to be told that a fountain is a spring, or that to charm is to bring about by means of a charm (?!?!?!). There's lots of this throughout, with little in the way of notes that would really supplement one......more

Goodreads review by Amanda on March 04, 2020

Because it has some favourites all bundled together!......more

Goodreads review by Colleen on May 15, 2016

Although I did find much of the writing very confusing I loved most of the stories. If it were not for the introductions or the fact that so many movies have been made from his stories, I would have found it extremely difficult/impossible to decipher what Shakespeare was trying to write. Loved the T......more

Goodreads review by Sean on July 02, 2009

If the damn Complete Shakespeare didn't weigh more than my bicycle and the font size didn't require me to get a better prescription, I would totally get that instead of all these book seperate or in quad-collections.........more