Blurb
In this lively comedy of love and money in sixteenth-century Venice, Bassanio wants to impress the wealthy heiress Portia but lacks the necessary funds. He turns to his merchant friend, Antonio, who is forced to borrow from Shylock, a Jewish moneylender. When Antonio’s business falters, repayment becomes impossible–and by the terms of the loan agreement, Shylock is able to demand a pound of Antonio’s flesh. Portia cleverly intervenes, and all ends well (except of course for Shylock).
My Review
⭐⭐⭐ & ❤︎❤︎❤︎
3 stars. Well, this was an interesting plot… I think I’ll make a checklist review this time.
– The anti-Semitism was sad, but honestly Shylock was so nasty that it was hard to be sorry for him.
– I didn’t really like any of the main characters 😝
– There were some good lines and some good humour though.
– I honestly don’t remember anything else except that it left me a little torn and unsure of what to think/feel… I plan to reread it and give a better review soon. For now though… “And what’s his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?”
– And this: “That light we see is burning in my hall. How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.”
Content: some innuendos/mentions of “beds”; some language; girl disguises as a boy.
Quote: The quality of mercy is not strain’d,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest,
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown.
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That in the course of justice none of us Should see salvation. We do pray for mercy,
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.
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Tags: hisfic-400s-to-1500s, adventure-genre, classics-genre, comedy-and-humour-books, european-fiction-and-nonfiction, historical-fiction-genre, plays-genre, book-reviews-to-be-updated, romance-genre, secular-books, standalones.
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