Clarifying the sources of our fascination with real and imaginary statues, this book asks us to reconsider some of our most basic assumptions about the uses of fantasy and fiction.

Shakespeare's Noise explores the playwright's deep fascination with dangerous and disorderly forms of utterance-rumor, slander, insult, vituperation, and curse-and how this generates an immense verbal energy in the poetry and on the stage.

Shylock, the Jewish moneylender in The Merchant of Venice who famously demands a pound of flesh as security for a loan to his antisemitic tormentors, is one of Shakespeare's most complex and idiosyncratic characters.

“Offering endless insights into the strange and archaic world of puppets . . . This is a book of literary mysticism, rich with accrued culture.” —John Rockwell, The New York Times Book Review The puppet creates delight and fear.

This publication covers the topic of building with logs and assumes that the reader is familiar with the ordinary frame building methods used where wood is the principal construction material.

And, in the tales, these child-lives keep changing shape. These are children who are often endangered as much as dangerous, haunted as well as haunting. They speak for lost and unknown childhoods.

What explains the strange and enduring force of this character, so unlike that of any other in Shakespeare's plays? Kenneth Gross posits that the figure of Shylock is so powerful because he is the voice of Shakespeare himself.