The Merchant of Venice: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Merchant of Venice, credited to William Shakespeare, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice was probably written between 1596 and 1598, and was printed with the comedies in the First Folio of 1623. Bassanio, an impoverished gentleman, uses the credit of his friend, the merchant Antonio, to borrow money from a wealthy Jew, Shylock. Antonio pledges to pay Shylock a pound of flesh if he defaults on the loan, which Bassanio will use to woo a rich heiress, Portia. A subplot concerns the elopement of Shylock's daughter Jessica with a Christian, Bassanio's friend Lorenzo. In its focus on love and marriage, the play shares certain concerns with Shakespeare's other comedies. Yet its depiction of the tensions between Jews and Christians in early modern Venice - and its highly dramatic trial scene in Act 4 - create darker currents in the play. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett) Cast: Duke of Venice: Filippo Gioachin Prince of Morocco: Mark F. Smith Prince of Arragon: David Nicol Antonio: David O'Connell Bassanio: mb Salarino: Laurie Anne Walden Salanio: Rosalind Wills Gratiano: David Leeson Lorenzo: Aaron Elliott Shylock: etk Tubal: Carolyn Frances Launcelot Gobbo: L. Lambert Lawson Old Gobbo: David Lawrence Leonardo: Laurie Anne Walden Balthasar: David Lawrence Stephano: Lucy Perry Portia: Arielle Lipshaw Nerissa: Megan Kunkel Jessica: Elizabeth Klett Clerk in court: Ernst Pattynama Portia's servant: Joshua B. Christensen Narrator: Dennis Sayers Audio edited by: Elizabeth Klett

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Merchant of Venice
• Author credits: William Shakespeare
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 6
• Listed recording duration: 2:26:16

Catalogue topics

• audio
• shakespeare
• venice
• drama
• comedy

Track guide

1. 0 - Dramatis Personae — 2:28
2. 1 - Act 1 — 25:40
3. 2 - Act 2 — 38:35
4. 3 - Act 3 — 36:51
5. 4 - Act 4 — 26:29
6. 5 - Act 5 — 16:15

Listen to this recording

Open the complete recording and player on Internet Archive. The player includes the full track list and available download formats.

Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.