The Merchant of Venice - William Shakespeare

It's customary for students to hate the books forced upon them but, whether it be me, this book or something else entirely, it is simply not so with the Merchant of Venice. I had never read Shakespeare prior to this book, except a quick, heavily simplified teaching of The Tempest at the beginning of secondary school; and yet, even so, I was captured from the first page: "In sooth, I know not why I am so sad". There's so many glorious quotes throughout and following this one that I am having to fully restrain myself not to blurt them out haphazardly. The pulling feature of this book is, of course, Shylock. He's a character of pure duality and this is ...