The Merchant of Venice
Written by William Shakespeare
Narrated by LibriVox Community
5/5
()
About this audiobook
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)
Cast:
Duke of Venice: Filippo Gioachin
Prince of Morocco: Mark F. Smith
Prince of Arragon: David Nicol
Antonio: David O'Connell
Bassanio: mb
Salanio: Rosalind Wills
Salarino: Laurie Anne Walden
Gratiano: David Leeson
Lorenzo: Aaron Elliott
Shylock: etk
Tubal: Carolyn Frances
Launcelot Gobbo: L. Lambert Lawson
Old Gobbo: David Lawrence
Leonardo: Laurie Anne Walden
Balthasar: David Lawrence
Stephano: Lucy Perry
Portia: Arielle Lipshaw
Nerissa: Megan Kunkel
Jessica: Elizabeth Klett
Clerk in court: Ernst Pattynama
Portia's servant: Joshua B. Christensen
Narrator: Dennis Sayers
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.
More audiobooks from William Shakespeare
The Tempest Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Comedy of Errors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Richard II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Henry V Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Twelfth Night Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5King Lear Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tempest Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Much Ado About Nothing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Taming Of The Shrew Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Titus Andronicus Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Romeo & Juliet & Vampires Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Shakespeare in Autumn (Seasons Edition -- Fall): Select Plays and the Complete Sonnets Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMeasure for Measure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Sonnets of Shakespeare Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5As You Like It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to The Merchant of Venice
Related audiobooks
The Merchant of Venice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Midsummer Night's Dream Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hamlet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tempest Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Twelfth Night Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tragedy of Macbeth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Henry V Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Taming of the Shrew Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Antigone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Much Ado About Nothing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Comedy of Errors Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Julius Caesar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All's Well That Ends Well Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As You Like It Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Romeo and Juliet Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5King Henry IV, Part 1 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Two Gentlemen of Verona Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Winter's Tale Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Coriolanus Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Richard III Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Othello Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKing Lear Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Measure For Measure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Henry VI, Part 1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Antony and Cleopatra Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Taming of the Shrew (version 2) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cymbeline Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Oedipus Rex (Oedipus the King) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Importance of Being Earnest Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shakespeare's Sonnets (version 2) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Performing Arts For You
Swingtime for Hitler: Goebbels’s Jazzmen, Tokyo Rose, and Propaganda That Carries a Tune Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Birth of The Endless Summer: A Surf Odyssey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Create: Tools from Seriously Talented People to Unleash Your Creative Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Grapes of Wrath Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Is this Anything? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Here We Go Again: My Life In Television Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Being Henry: The Fonz . . . and Beyond Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Art of Racing in the Rain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Othello: Fully Dramatized Audio Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Power of Myth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hamlet: Fully Dramatized Audio Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Midsummer Night's Dream: Fully Dramatized Audio Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Science of Storytelling Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Macbeth: Fully Dramatized Audio Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Romeo and Juliet: The Fully Dramatized Audio Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dracula (dramatic reading) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Way I Heard It Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Last Words: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Save the Cat! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pure Drivel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Julius Caesar: A Fully-Dramatized Audio Production From Folger Theatre Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Everywhere An Oink Oink: An Embittered, Dyspeptic, and Accurate Report of Forty Years In Hollywood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Life in Parts Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for The Merchant of Venice
5 ratings0 reviews