Shylocks Ghost

As Man Booker Prizewinning writer Howard Jacobson retells The Merchant of Venice 400 years after Shakespeares death he travels with Alan Yentob to the ghetto in Venice to explore Shakespeares most performed play and in particular the character of the most divisive fictional Jew in history Shylock On their journey Howard and Alan examine the evidence behind the charge of antisemitism against Shakespeare How did his old Jew from Venice become such a useful propaganda tool during the Third Reich and what was behind the absurd and infamous proposal to cut off a pound of flesh