This short book on The Merchant of Venice is a literary experiment, an exploration of an untested idea. It begins with a radically counter-intuitive approach: seeing Shylock -- the classic anti-Jewish stereotype -- in terms of ancient Roman honor and ancient Roman comedy instead of the customary Christian/Jewish moral issues.

Beginning with a narrow focus on a single literary document that is one of our culture's seminal influences, Shylock, the Roman methodically drills deeply into several of Shakespeare's plays, ultimately achieving a breadth of vision that explains in short order a great deal about the logic of Shakespeare's artistry and the point of view of Shakespeare as a dramatist.

This book will stimulate furious debate among scholars and critics. More importantly, new productions of The Merchant of Venice will have to cast movie action heroes in the leading role of Shylock, the Roman.