Shylock: A Legend and Its Legacy

by John Gross

Overview

With brilliant historical perspective and insight, theater critic John Gross explores the complex and influential history that has given Shylock a life beyond the play and established him as a figure of world mythology.

Illuminating Shylock's evolution on the stage, his importance to writers and psychologists, and his enduring influence on society and culture, John Gross sheds as much light on our own shifting attitudes and beliefs as on the rich and disquieting figure Shakespeare created.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780671883867
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	01/04/1994
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

John Gross FRSL was an eminent English man of letters. A leading intellectual, writer, anthologist, and critic, The Guardian and The Spectator were among several publications to describe Gross as "the best-read man in Britain"

Editorial Reviews

...[A] singular gift of restoration and a rare example of the gentle power of impassioned reason presented in measured language.

New York Times Books of the Century

Gross sheds new light on Shakespeare and anti-Semitism in this valuable and entertaining study of attitudes toward the Bard's Jewish usurer. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Amazingly, Shylock is in only five scenes in the Merchant of Venice . Yet, as pointed out by Gross, the theater critic for the London Sunday Telegraph , his impact and significance transcend his physical presence, so much so that his name and ``pound of flesh'' idea are almost universally known. In the first part of this character/cultural study, Gross examines the antecedents of Shylock and the play, and his development within the play. The second part considers ``interpretations'' both theatrical and literary in England and America until World War II; the third part considers Shylock more broadly as a touchstone (e.g., how his ``type'' is used by the Victorians--Trollope's Lopez, Dickens's Riah, Ruskin's use of him in Munera Pulveris ). There's not much new here--Shylock and Merchant of Venice have both consumed tons of interpretive ink--but the book is readable and puts a lot of sundry information in one place. For collections heavy in Shakespeariana and/or Judaica.-- Robert E. Brown, Onondaga Cty. P.L., Syracuse, N.Y.

Library Journal