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"...shows the benefit of Halio's editing
of the play and provides thirty short extracts on important topics:
Venice and its treatment of Jews, attitudes toward Jews in England,
male friendship in the period, marriage, usury and capitalism. The
range of selections is fine; the volume concludes with a section
on contemporary anti-Semitism and "male bonding" designed
to help instructors make the play's themes engage with contemporary
social concerns."
Studies in English Literature (print)
"This is a very important work."
lanche
Woolls & David Loertscher (GaleGroup.com)(print)
The Merchant of Venice, even its own time, was considered
Shakespeare’s most controversial play. Now one of the most popularly
read and performed works, the play raises even more important issues
for our day, particularly anti-Semitism and the treatment of Jews.
Shakespeare scholar Jay Halio brings together his fascinating
literary insights and his considerable knowledge of Shakespeare’s
world to this student sourcebook. His analysis of the play helps
students interpret Shakespeare’s plot and interwoven subplots,
the sources that helped shape the play and the characters, and the
thematic issues relating to justice, mercy, and the myriad bonds
of human relationships.
This sourcebook also considers contemporary applications, with
essays and editorials on current hate groups in the United States,
the treatment of women, and male bonding. This section, culminating
with a poignant interview in which actor Hal Holbrook discusses
his stage portrayal of Shylock, will leave readers with an appreciation
for how profoundly relevant The Merchant of Venice remains for our
time.
In addition, this online sourcebook provides the user access to:
- The Civilization of
the Renaissance in Italy: An online guide to the origins of Venice and to
Renaissance Italy
- Life in Elizabethan
England: A comprehensive online guide
to the daily life in Shakespeare’s time
- BBC overview of
Venice during the Renaissance with useful information about the Jewish Ghetto
- A History of Usury
Prohibition: An overview of the
attitudes toward usury through the ages
- A History of Credit
Cards
- Pictorial survey of
English and American actors who played in
The Merchant of Venice for late
Victorian and Edwardian audiences
- E-texts to: The Merchant of Venice, Othello, Romeo and
Juliet, Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Jew of Malta, Hamlet, King Lear, A
Midsummer’s Night Dream, King Richard III, Metamorphoses, As You Like It,
Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Cymbeline, The Tempest, Symposium, Taming of the Shrew,
and more
- Biographical profiles
including: William Shakespeare, Thomas Coryat, Cicero, Sir Thomas Elyot, Henry
VIII, Elizabeth I, Ben Johnson, Thomas More, Boccaccio, Edmund Spenser, Frances
Bacon, George Granville, Edmund Kean, Laurence Olivier, Hal Holbrook and others
- Glossary of cultural
references and historical idioms from The
Merchant of Venice
- Web-based study
questions
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