01489cam a2200217 4500 102457122 TxAuBib 20110505120000.0 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||und|u 2132 LibriVox TxAuBib Shakespeare, William. Merchant of Venice, The [LibriVox] / Shakespeare, William. 23 sound files : digital, MP3 or Ogg files. The text for this LibriVox audiobook came from public-domain text. William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice was probably written between 1596 and 1598, and was printed with the comedies in the First Folio of 1623. Bassanio, an impoverished gentleman, uses the credit of his friend, the merchant Antonio, to borrow money from a wealthy Jew, Shylock. Antonio pledges to pay Shylock a pound of flesh if he defaults on the loan, which Bassanio will use to woo a rich heiress, Portia. A subplot concerns the elopement of Shylock's daughter Jessica with a Christian, Bassanio's friend Lorenzo. In its focus on love and marriage, the play shares certain concerns with Shakespeare's other comedies. Yet its depiction of the tensions between Jews and Christians in early modern Venice - and its highly dramatic trial scene in Act 4 - create darker currents in the play. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett.) In MP3 and Ogg vorbis format. Electronic audiobooks. LibriVox.org. http://librivox.org/rss/2132 TXCAN