The Nutmeg Tree (1937) by Margery Sharp

🥜 I think I have found in this book, my favorite (so far) Margery Sharp. The Nutmeg Tree (I loved the title too, though the said tree didn't have focal point to the story - it is an allegory). The story opens with a memorable scene in Julia's bathroom, she's taking a bath, singing the Marseillaise, while surrounded by "some of her possessions" - a table, a clock, and whatnot. The bailiffs were outside, taking some furniture out of the flat, indicating Julia's current hard-up-for-money situation. The cash she received from the furniture - after some rather flirty haggles - she needs it to travel to France, on her estranged daughter's invitation.

🥜 From that opening scene, we were instantly aware of Julia's type of character. The story is set in the 1930s. During WWI, Julia had married very young to a guy named Packett, it's a hasty wedding, which lasted just for a year or two. Packett died in the war, leaving Julia with their daughter Suzanne. But Julia couldn't live with the priggish and wealthy Packetts; they were opposite her Bohemian nature. So Julia left her daughter with them, and started her own life as actress and showgirl in London. The Packetts gave her some money - thinking that she can start a good life with it - but of course, it lasted only a very short time. Julia lived always in need of cash - which she always had by either a little flirtation or deceit - you know the kind. And now, suddenly she received invitation from Susan (she called herself Susan rather than Suzanne), to whom she never had any communication before, to give advice about the man she (Susan) wished to marry.

🥜 Excepting the opening scene, the story is set in a vacation villa in Southern France. Julia is now playing her yet biggest "role", a refined lady, worthy of her mother-in-law and her daughter. The whole story centered in Julia's struggle to maintain her dignity, while obstacle after obstacle threatened to expose her true character. The first obstacle came from Susan's lover Bryan; Julia soon found (in her dismay) that he is of her kind (but worse), and therefore won't be suitable for her daughter. Then, Susan's guardian, Sir William Waring, arrived, and left Julia to be on guard every second of her existence. Many comical scenes derived from the many adventures that came Julia's way, and in her struggles to appear graceful and poised. Margery Sharp did a wonderful job in portraying these, and in the process, we get to know Julia's genuine character which made people like her instantly. Well, people who cherished the good quality in her, despite of her unrefined outer manners. I, for one, loved Julia, and wished for her happy ending. 🥜 What can I say? I loved almost every aspect of this book. The comical scenes are brilliant; humorous but tender; the main characters - Julia and Sir William - are lovely and charming, despite of their flaws (Julia's in this case); and the plot is smart. The only setback for me is the inconclusive ending. You might probably know that I dislike hanging ending. I am 99% sure of the ending, but I still prefer a neat one from the writer. Although in this case, I understand Sharp's choice of the ending; it emphasized Julia's character perfectly - you would never know what she might of might not do the next second you leave her alone. Well played, Margery Sharp! Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Cooking with Fernet Branca (2004) by James Hamilton-Paterson

 

🍷 Imagine reading a P.D. Wodehouse, but move the setting to Tuscany, then reduce the usual slapstick moments - just a tiny bit, and add a lot of cooking and unusual recipes - there, you'll get Cooking with Fernet Branca. The story revolve around two foreign neighbors in a secluded hilltop cottages in Tuscany. Both the rather snobbish English man Gerald Samper, and the Voynovian (a crime-riddled ex-Soviet Republic country) Marta, had bought their cottages from the same agent, who promised them both that they could live peacefully. A promise, which, with time, proved to be broken. Through a series of misunderstandings and, a Wodehousian miss-timing, the two neighbors found themselves struggled to maintain harmony.

🍷 Gerald "Gerry" Samper is a ghostwriter in need of a secluded place to write about the lives of celebrities - from sportsman to boyband singer. When he's in a foul mood, Samper turns to experimental cooking - creating eccentric dishes - with questionable delectability - with unusual ingredient-pairings. Indeed, one time, when he heard someone said "cats among the pigeons", Samper literally thought of cooking with cat's and pigeon's meat. Ugh! He even "shares" some of his recipes in the book. One particular ingredient that later on becomes his staple is Fernet Branca, a distinctive liquor first introduced by his new neighbor, Marta. Marta is a songwriter, who is currently hired by a famous Italian movie director named Pacini. When the unlikely neighbors first met, both thought the other ridiculous persons who's bragging about his/her profession. And these 'misunderstandings' continually formed hilarious moments throughout the book.

🍷 What makes this book more distinctive, is the structure. The story is told from both Gerald and Marta's point of view. They told it alternately, describing most of the scenes from their perspectives. While Gerald's parts are mostly read like a diary with additional cooking recipes, Marta's contains of diary and letters to her sister. From these, we gather little by little of her social and familial background, which spices up the story a bit. I won't describe the plot in details, for not spoiling it for you, because the comedic quality of this book depends on the plot and timing. In short, it's a delightful and hilarious book, with quirky characters, more quirky dishes, and with the rural Tuscany summer vibes - sprinkled with tiny glimpses of the glamourous world of celebrities, movie making, and helicopters.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Pigs Have Wings (1952) by P.G. Wodehouse #1952Club

🐷 My second read for #1952Club was one of P.G. Wodehouse's novels. This is my first from the Blanding Castles series. I think nowadays I always need at least one Wodehouse read a year. Not only they are always hilarious and highly entertaining, I also admire Wodehouse's genius plotting. The way he could put one simple everyday-life stuff into an ordinary existence, and change it into a wrecking chaos, but then straighten it again to a beautiful ending, is always amazed me. This one's premises is a competition between two prominent figure in a rural village called Blandings.

🐷 Lord Emsworth's passion is pigs. His "pet" is Empress of Blandings, a reigning champion in Fat Pigs competition at the Shropshire Show. This year his neighbor, a Sir Gregory Parsloe, is becoming a huge contender, with his new sow called Queen of Matchingham. It's one or two weeks before the show, and at least two of Lord Emsworth's household: Galahad Threepwood - the idle but smart brother, and Beach - the butler, are deeply concerned because they have put their money on Empress of Blandings. Hence, it's imperative that the Empress should win the contest!

🐷 Pig competition scheming, however outrageously funny, wouldn't be entertaining enough to read, so Wodehouse added love element. Lots of them too! Old love-turned-sour, current-blossoming-love, and a lot of understandings and wrong-timings involved to create an entanglement of love makings in the midst of pigs-scheming. The combination of the two resulted in the usual Wodehouseian charming-hilarious novel that makes you lost your mind, in a positive way! 

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Read this book for:

The 1952 Club

hosted by Simon @ Stuck in a Book & Karen @ Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings

Mr. Finchley Discovers His England (1934) by Victor Canning

🚲 A story about middle-aged solicitor's clerk taking an adventurous holiday for the first time of his life is quite irresistible for me. And this book is just about that. No plot or story line, it's just a series of Mr. Finchley's hilarious, and often absurd, adventures around the countryside and little towns of England. The result is a refreshing and entertaining read!

🚲 Mr. Finchley's life can be accurately described in two words: regulated and rules. He's been working for years as clerk, and has never taken holiday from work. When his boss instructed him to take a three weeks summer holiday, Mr. Finchley was quite confused. But he bought a ticket anyway for a journey to a seaside town.

🚲 But Edgar Finchley never reached the town. For just from day one he always met with unexpected complications that thwarted his original plans. And these events and people he met are often comical; most of them very absurd. They are ranging from good to bad people. A Gypsy couple, a car thief (that's how he deviated from his original plan in the first place), and a male version of Miss Havisham are only a few I can remember. Along his journey, which he took either by foot or by bicycle, he was alternately kidnapped, on the run from an asylum, on the boat helping a smuggler, working at a gas station, and helping at a street show. Not to mention being chased by either the police or the angry gypsy because he thought Mr. Finchley had pinched his wife!

🚲 On the whole, this is a light read with cheerful tone, silly and charming. Overall I liked Mr. Finchley's adventures, though I was a bit uneasy when he just brushed off the smuggler's occupation just like that as if it's not wrong - because a crime is still a crime, though the criminal is kind and warm towards you, right? I know that in his position he couldn't do anything for his own sake, but I would feel troubled had I experienced the same. Excepting the game of cricket - which was too long and boring - I loved this book.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/5

Aunts Aren't Gentlemen by P.G. Wodehouse: A Review for #ReadingTheMeow2023

🐱 Bertie Wooster wakes up one morning to find red spots on her chest, and the doctor's (E. Jimpson Murgatroyd) order is to stay quietly in a peaceful place. So go Bertie and his smart valet Jeeves to Maiden Eggesford, a rural town where Bertie's Aunt Dahlia is staying with her friend, Colonel Briscoe, in a house called Eggesford Hall.

🐱 But will Bertie get his prescribed dose of the quite life in Maiden Eggesford? Of course not! As usual, a series of chaos would certainly ensue wherever he goes. This time in the shape of a stray cat!

🐱 There will be a horse race in nearby town. Colonel Briscoe and a man called Cook, who lives in a house called Eggesford Court, were longtime rival. Cook's horse, Potato Chip (what a name for a racehorse!😂) is very attached to a stray black cat. He always performs well whenever the cat is present.

🐱 When Bertie was calling on Colonel Briscoe for lunch, he mistakenly arrived at Eggesford Court (Cook's residence) instead of Eggesford Hall. He saw a black cat, and played with it. But, alas, Pop Cook saw it and thought Bertie wanted to steal his cat to sabotage Potato Chip's training. Bertie recounted this unpleasant incident to the 'old ancestor' (Aunt Dahlia), who has actually placed a bet on Simla, her host's horse. Knowing a way to secure her win, she arranged with a local poacher to steal the cat, and to place it temporarily at Bertie's cottage!

🐱 This then created a string of complex but hilarious misunderstandings, mis-timings, and whatever you call it that usually happens to Bertie Wooster! Add to it the romance between a headstrong girl (Cook's daughter), whom Bertie had once proposed to but regret it now, and a communist young man (Bertie's friend) who are now jealous of Bertie. To make it more complicated, Major Plank, whom Bertie had had trouble with in the past, happened to be staying as a guest at Pop Cook's!

🐱 If you're familiar with Wodehouse's Jeeves stories, you'll guess how chaotically funny these awkward situations can become, and how the ever reliable Jeeves could always save his master from the worst possible intricacies he's liable to put himself in.

🐱 As usual, one will always feel much satisfied after a dose of laughter along Jeeves stories. This one is no different. Though the cat seems not to appear very often, it did have an important and cohesive role in this particular adventure.

Rating: 4,5 / 5

**My second read for Literary Potpourri's Reading the Meow 2023 **

Getting to know the Meow:
I won't tell you my name, but I am very fond of my horse friend: Potato Chip.
I'm hanging around him during his trainings (he's a race horse, isn't it cool?)
My contribution to the story: I was catnapped! Poor Potato Chip refused to do what he's told because I'm not there with him. 
I don't understand why people make fuss about it, 'cause I'm having a good time, and I love following people around!

 

The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse

🌞 The Inimitable Jeeves is the first comedic novel in Jeeves series from P.G. Wodehouse, one of the greatest humorists and writers of 20th century. Well, it's actually more of semi-novel, as it's constructed of eleven short stories which are assembled chronologically into a novel. You can detect its lack of cohesion after each chapter - which make the whole reading experience becomes...well, unwholesome.

🌞 Jeeves is what they call a gentleman's gentleman - a highly competent valet - to a wealthy "idle rich" gentleman called Bertie Wooster.

🌞 Wooster is fond of Jeeves, because of his almost perfect competence in either serving his comfort or solving his personal (and general) problems.

🌞 In this first semi-novel, most of Wooster's problems come from his best friend Bingo Little, who is always falling in love with the next charming girl he ever lays his eyes to, and his rather tyrannical Aunt Agatha, who always persuades him to marry. Other than that, Jeeves' domineering manner sometimes annoys him when the valet disapproves his flamboyant fashion styles, although in the end he'll relents to it, rather than being deprived of Jeeves' flawless services.

🌞 Overall, it's a witty, humorous piece to read. It's the kind of book you'd need to keep you sane in difficult or dreary times. It's amusing and entertaining, but lack of deeper or meaningful values. You'll have fun while reading it, but most probably forget most of it after.

Am I going to read more of Wodehouse, or Jeeves' series in particular? Certainly, you'd need one or more comic antidote every year, right?

Rating: 3,5 / 5

Twelfth Night [Review & Play Monthly Meme]

Orsino—Duke of Illyria—is wooing Olivia, a lady who is in mourning of her death brother and doesn’t want to meet any man. Meanwhile, Viola—also a lady—is stranded in Illyria as her ship wrecked, separated from her twin brother who was at the same ship before the wreck. She wants to hide her identity, so she disguises as a man and serves as Orsino’s attendant, Cesario. As she becomes the Duke’s favorite, Orsino sends her to woo Olivia for him, which is hard a task for her as she is actually in love with her boss. The plot becomes much more complex when Olivia rejects the Duke but falls in love instead with the messenger (Viola in disguise). Meanwhile Sebastian—Viola’s twin brother—has actually landed on Illyria too; and as he is Viola’s twin brother, it’s hard to distinguish one from another; and that adds to the complexity of the misunderstandings.

As always with Shakespeare’s comedies, this play is about misunderstanding, disguising, and coincidences. There are the ladies and gentlemen, but also the losers (Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek), and of course The Fool who is often cleverer and wiser than the others :). I’m not a fan of comedy, but this one was quite enjoyable as a light reading. However, I still cannot appreciate some vulgar humors of Shakespeare (and maybe I’d never do) in this play.

One character that annoyed me is Maria. The way she’s playing at Malvolio is, for me, too much. Maybe Malvolio deserves to be given a lesson by his colleagues for his haughtiness, but to false your boss’ handwriting to insult your colleague is ‘grossness’—the word Maria used to describe Malvolio’s appearance: “For there is no Christian that means to be saved by believing rightly can ever believe such impossible passages of grossness. He’s in yellow stockings.” And why must she use Christianity to compare such silliness? Ridiculous and not funny at all!

Play Monthly Meme August theme: Favorite Scene

I think the cleverer of them is Viola, and her dialogue with the Fool in Act 3 Scene 1 is very interesting. From the whole play, this scene is my favorite. I enjoyed the Viola-Fool dialogue, and also Viola (Cesario)-Olivia scene where Olivia is clearly attracted to Cesario, and how Cesario feels awkward about that. It’s funny really, when you see it being presented on stage. It’s funny that Olivia didn’t see how Cesario reacts (her body language most of all) just as women do. See here (it becomes more interesting because they staged it outdoor):

Three and a half stars, for I enjoyed the play, although it’s not too special.

P.S. I still don’t understand, why this play is titled Twelfth Night? Are the scenes really stretched in twelve nights?

~~~~~~~~

I read ebook version from Feedbooks

*This book is counted as:*

11^th book for Let’s Read Plays (August) – Shakespeare Comedy

52^nd book for The Classics Club Project

An Ideal Husband

“Every man of ambition has to fight his century with its own weapons. What this century worship is wealth. The God of this century is wealth. To succeed one must have wealth. At all costs one must have wealth.” (Sir Robert Chiltern—An Ideal Husband)

Once again I was amazed by Oscar Wilde—this guy is really cool, isn’t he? After having been impressed by The Picture of Dorian Gray—Wilde’s masterpiece for me—Wilde made me laughing hard at his witty sarcasm in Importance of Being Earnest. After that I was a little worried whether his other plays would be exactly like Importance; very funny but lack of deeper values. I was wrong! This month I picked An Ideal Husband for Let’s Read Plays and, fortunately, The Classics Spin also picked the play from my list by spitting the lucky number 6! So there I was, plunging into the fraudulent scheme, political twist, love story and morality of British society in 19^th century. And, although the beginning is rather flat, An Ideal Husband turns out to be one of the most entertaining plays I’ve ever read so far; and more importantly, it’s much deeper than Importance!

Sir Robert Chiltern is an honorable gentleman in society, and respectable politician in the House of Parliament. He was appraised by so many people, but little do they know that Chiltern had done a shameful deceit in his earlier career, from which he has been building his later career and fortune. Lady Chiltern is also a high reputation ‘flawless’ lady in the society. She adores her husband for being pure and noble. In a party one night, a crafty woman named Mrs. Cheveley blackmailed Sir Chiltern to support a fraudulent scheme that he disapproved in the House, or otherwise she would release an old letter that will prove Chiltern’s deceit in public and will ruin his life.

Lord Goring, a young gentleman who leads an easy going, fashionable and enjoyable life style, is a closest friend of Robert and Gertrude Chiltern. Being sarcastic and indifferent outside, Arthur Goring is actually a kind hearted friend inside. When Robert and Gertrude were on the edge of losing each other’s love following the blackmail, Arthur separately tried to help them. Unfortunately, several trivial accidents put Arthur in a complex situation himself; he almost lost his friends’ trust and, most importantly, the young lady he was in love with.

As always, Wilde’s strength in plays is the combination of intertwining plot, complex failures, sarcasm paradoxes to criticize British society at that time, and his clever wittiness. But particularly in this play, Wilde plunged deeper than merely witty banters. My favorite character here is Lord Goring, he’s as easy going as Lord Henry in Dorian Gray or Algernon in Importance, but he also possessed a wise philosophy beneath his indifferent manner, which was always ready to be presented whenever his friends needed it. Far from being shallow, Goring’s advices to Robert and Gertrude were so genuine and useful at the same time. My favorite scene is when Lord Goring gave his speech to Lady Chiltern after the lady restrained her husband from accepting seat in Parliament. Here’s part of it:

“Women are not meant to judge us, but to forgive us when we need forgiveness. Pardon, not punishment, is their mission. […] A woman who can keep a man’s love, and love him in return, has done all the world wants of women, or should want of them.”

In the end, Wilde wants to criticize how British society has been worshiping wealth and status too much that they neglected the genuine values in life: love and honesty. When Robert Chiltern consulted with Arthur Goring after the blackmail, Goring’s first advice is to confide to his wife; that Lady Chiltern loves him and thus will forgive him. On the other hand, Goring also advised Lady Chiltern to forgive his husband, and instead of blaming him, to accept and support him with her love. From the Chilterns’ conflict, I learn that every family, every person must sometimes have crisis in life; but that crisis often get bigger than it should because we are reluctant to be honest. As soon as the Chilterns opened themselves to each other, one by one the complicated problems were eventually unraveled.

Wilde is also emphasizing women’s role in the society. Instead of expecting their husband to be perfect and worshipping them like gods, they should act as a partner by loving and supporting them. It’s really interesting that the philosophy must come from Lord Goring, who was a bachelor. With that quality of perspective, we should envy whichever girl Arthur Goring picks to marry, for he would certainly be an ideal husband!

Four and a half stars for An Ideal Husband, really entertaining!

~~~~~~

Let’s Read Plays (June) theme: Oscar Wilde

Baca Bareng BBI 2013: (June) European Literature

46^th book for The Classics Club Project

The Taming of The Shrew

After being touched by a Greek tragedy on last March, this month we ought to read a Shakespearean comedy for Let’s Read Plays. The Taming of The Shrew has been my choice since the beginning of this event, and now I’m glad I have chosen it. It is perhaps the most satisfying and entertaining comedy I’ve ever read so far (the other was The Merchant of Venice, yet it didn’t feel like comedy in the end). This play uses play within a play structure, and the play within has a much bigger portion than the opening one, that you might even forget that you were inside another play when the whole plays ended.

A drunkard tinker named Sly was asleep outside an alehouse when a Lord and his group passed by in their hunting. Seeing Sly, the Lord had an idea to bring the drunkard secretly home and treated Sly as if he was a rich Lord. The Lord made a serious effort of mocking Sly, he even invited a group of players to play a fine comedy to entertain ‘Lord’ Sly. And here was the original play….

Gremio and Hortensio were both suitors of Bianca—a fair lady, daughter of Baptista, a gentleman of Padua—however they could never won Bianca, as Baptista won’t let Bianca marry before her elder sister—a shrewd lady named Katharina—got a husband. Gremio and Hortensio then raced to find a husband for Katharina to achieve their goal.

Lucentio also fell in love with Bianca, and to compete with Gremio and Hortensio, he would disguise as a school-master, so that he could court Bianca while teaching her. On the other hand, Hortensio’s friend Petruchio was looking for a rich lady as a wife, and liked the idea of taking a shrewd lady. Then Hortensio, Gremio and Tranio—Lucentio’s servant who disguised as his master—decided to support Petruchio’s expenses to woo Katharina.

So, when Lucentio, Hortensio (disguised as a music teacher for Bianca) and Gremio were competing to win Bianca’s heart, Petruchio was in a harder mission to tame the shrewd Katharina. The most entertaining part came from the way Petruchio tamed the shrew. Shakespeare, as usual, was a genius in making us laugh by words-playing—and that’s why it is hard to translate most of his comedies in other languages, because English have so many words with double meanings, that when you just translate them as it is, there might not be any comical situation left. And here is one of the words-playing from Katharina and Petruchio:

Katharina: You were a moveable.

Petruchio: Why, what’s a moveable?

Katharina: A joint stool.

Petruchio: Thou hast hit it. Come, sit on me.

Katharina: Asses are made to bear, and so are you.

Petruchio: Women are made to bear, and so are you.

And this is another one (rather more slapstick than smart, actually) from Petruchio and his servant Grumio when they were in front of the door of Hortensio’s house, and Grumio mistakenly thought he was instructed to knock down his master instead of knocking the door for him:

Petruchio: Here, sirrah Grumio, knock I say.

Grumio    : Knock, sir! Whom should I knock? Is there man has rebused your worthy?

Petruchio: Villain, I say, knock me here soundly.

Grumio    : Knock you here, sir!

As most of Shakespearean comedies, the wittiness of his plays came also from the complexity of disguising situation; the misunderstanding caused by it and how they were revealed. And as you might have guessed from the title, Petruchio finally succeeded in taming Katharina. But it’s not the end result which was important, but more on the process itself which was smart, comical, and acted as a satyr to reflect what women suffered during that era.

From Katharina we can see how an Italian young woman at that time, no matter how smart and ambitious she was, did not have any choices for her future besides waiting for her parents to get her a husband, and all around the complicated of dowry businesses which I have never understood… :) In short, women could not pursue her own ambition and to be distinguished in the society by herself; and without a marriage, there would not be any future for a young woman. I think this injustice which has made Katharina the shrewd she was. From her smart conversations with Petruchio, I believe she was actually a very smart woman, but she was forced to get marry very soon by her parents.

Four stars for The Taming of the Shrew.

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I read the ebook version from Feedbooks dot com

This book is counted for: 

April theme: Shakespeare’s comedy

39^th book for The Classics Club

The Merchant Of Venice

The Merchant of Venice was the second comedy I have read from Shakespeare’s plays. After successively read two tragedies, it’s quite relieving to flow with a lighter story, with beautiful words. The main plot of this play was concerning Antonio—an honorable Venetian merchant—who wanted to help his dear friend Bassanio to pursue his love for a wealthy girl named Portia. Antonio agreed to be Bassanio’s guarantor as the later took a credit from a cunning Jewish moneylender named Shylock.

Being a Christian hater—especially to Antonio who always lent money gratis—Shylock was full of joy when he found out that Antonio’s ships had wrecked at the sea, that he won’t be able to pay back the money. Wanted to take revenge to Antonio, Shylock sued Antonio in court to be cut his flesh for exchange of the money.

Meanwhile, with the money from Shylock, Bassanio had departed to Belmont to enter a contest set by the late of Portia’s father to get a husband for his daughter. A suitor who could choose the right casket from three choices would become Portia’s husband. It was a great test indeed, for Portia was very rich, that his father was afraid she would get a greedy man as a husband.

And between those two situations, Shakespeare crafted witty and interesting scenes and acts to become this beautiful play.

This is the third play I read for Let’s Read Plays and I found at least one similarity from those three, that the servants—despite of being secondary characters—were wiser than their masters or mistresses, and the main characters often learned from them. Here is when Nerissa taught her lady, Portia, about how the balance of trouble and happiness would make live longer.

“It is no mean happiness, therefore, to be seated in the mean.

Superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer.”

It’s interesting too how Shakespeare picked a Jewish as the stereotype antagonist; I wonder whether it did not stir many controversies from Jewish readers? Another thing, being a comedy, this play still made me a bit uncomfortable when Antonio asked Shylock to be a Christian (Act IV Scene I). When Antonio was asked by Portia: “What mercy can you render him, Antonio?” he replied: “..Two things provided more: that for this favor he presently become a Christian…” I could not understand how forcing somebody to have one’s religion can be regarded as a mercy. And that request changed my respect to Antonio.

Besides that annoyance, I found this play quite entertaining, especially whenever Launcelot was in the scenes, such as this one (talking to Gobbo—his father):

Gobbo: “..what a beard hast thou got! Thou hast got more hair on thy chin than Dobbin my fill-horse has on his tail.”
Launcelot: “It should seem then that Dobbin’s tail grows backward. I am sure he had more hair of his tail than I have of my face when I last saw him.”

Over all, Merchant of Venice was an exotic and intriguing play; it criticized men’s greediness. I found it funny in Portia’s father casket contest, and a bit tragic in Shylock’s judgment. Four stars for Mrchant of Venice!

*I read ebook from FeedBooks dot com*