The Merchant of Venice: The Most Beautiful Classic Plays of Shakespeare Author: [British] William Shakespeare Publisher: Beijing United Publishing Company

Introduction · · · · · ·
★ Jiang Fangzhou (writer) / Zhang Yueran (writer) / Chen Kun (actor) / Yuan Quan (actor) / Meng Jinghui (director) / Shi Hang (screenwriter) / Bai Bangni (screenwriter) specially jointly recommend, leading readers to reread Shakespeare and feel the charm of classic masterpieces.

★ "Shakespeare is the teacher of all masters, the origin of the entire Western literary coordinates, and the only writer who deserves no excessive praise." - Jiang Fangzhuo

★ Designed by the famous book cover designer Ma Shirui, this collection of Shakespeare's works is a "high-value" one that combines classicism and fashion for Chinese readers.

★ New Era Readings, only ten selected works, recognized authoritative translations, only read Chinese classic translations: Most of the "Complete Works of Shakespeare" are placed on the bookshelf for decoration, and few readers can understand the obscure medieval English in Shakespeare's original works. Therefore, the complete works and the Chinese-English bilingual version are not the first choice for readers who are first exposed to Shakespeare's works. "Unread" has selected ten representative plays of Shakespeare this time, carefully edited and proofread based on the recognized Zhu Shenghao translation, and presented readers with a valuable new era Chinese reading.

★ Read Shakespeare's original plays and the novels rewritten by contemporary world-class writers to experience the eternal charm of classics: To commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, the famous British Hogarth Press (founded by Virginia Woolf) invited seven top novelists from around the world to rewrite Shakespeare's famous plays. The simplified Chinese version was jointly launched by Penguin Random House (North Asia) and "Unread". The first work "In Between Time" has been launched. These seven classic plays have been included in the "Most Beautiful Shakespeare Classic Plays Collection" and published simultaneously.

400 years after Shakespeare's death, his works are still as popular and influential as any other classic writer. The English words and classic quotes he created have rewritten the history of world literature and have influenced hundreds of millions of readers for generations.

The Merchant of Venice is an important early work of Shakespeare and a comedy with great irony. Antonio, a Venetian merchant, borrowed 3,000 gold coins from Shylock, a Jewish usurer, to help his friend Bassanio get married. Shylock took the opportunity to retaliate because Antonio lent money to others without interest, which affected his business and insulted him. He wrote in the loan agreement that if Antonio could not pay back the money within three months, he would cut a pound of flesh from Antonio to pay off the debt. Antonio was unable to pay back the money on time due to a shipwreck, so Shylock filed a public prosecution and asked Antonio to fulfill the loan agreement...