I really enjoyed Gareth Hinds's adaptation of Beowulf when I read it last spring, even though the illustrations get a bit gruesome (exactly what will appeal to some readers, young and old), so I was interested to see Hinds's version of The Merchant of Venice. There are moments where I laughed out loud (including at the very first illustration with the speech bubble reading "I know not why I am sad." I don't know why, but that's just funny, coming from a couple of guys in modern dress.) I don't mind that the cast is in modern dress, but I found it jarring to have the speech move from casual, colloquial prose to the traditional verse of Shakespeare as the book progressed. I'm sorry, but it just takes you right out of the story when you go from, "Your father was a pretty sharp guy," to "He knows me as the blind man knows the cuckoo -- by the bad voice." I know Hinds thinks he's easing his readers into the unedited Shakespearean verse, but I think he should choose either prose or verse and stick to it. I enjoyed the balance he struck in Beowulf, where he and his editors developed a new translation where they "attempted to strike a balance between easy readability and the poetry drama found in our favorite verse translations." Review by Stacy
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