The Serpent of Venice
Ratings24
Average rating3.9
Venice, a long time ago. Three prominent Venetians await their most loathsome and foul dinner guest, the erstwhile envoy of Britain and France, and widower of the murdered Queen Cordelia: the rascal-Fool Pocket.
This trio of cunning plotters-the merchant, Antonio; the senator, Montressor Brabantio; and the naval officer, Iago-have lured Pocket to a dark dungeon, promising an evening of sprits and debauchery with a rare Amontillado sherry and Brabantio's beautiful daughter, Portia.
But their invitation is, of course, bogus. The wine is drugged. The girl isn't even in the city limits. Desperate to rid themselves once and for all of the man who has consistently foiled their grand quest for power and wealth, they have lured him to his death. (How can such a small man, be such a huge obstacle?). But this Fool is no fool . . . and he's got more than a few tricks (and hand gestures) up his sleeve.
Series
Featured Series
3 primary books#2 in Fool
Fool is a 3-book series with 3 released primary works first released in 2009 with contributions by Christopher Moore.
Reviews
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Extremely bawdy modern Shakespeare mash-up. Lots of quivering codpieces, taphouse tarts and glistening dog knobs. Mostly fun, I will read the others...
This one is fun and merges a few different plays together. There is mystery and violence and...mostly absurd humor.
Moore's snarky hero Pocket inserts himself seamlessly into the most unsuspecting of famous tales – first in Fool, which (loosely) covers the plot of King Lear, and now in the Serpent of Venice, a hodgepodge of comedy, tragedy, and horror. The plots and characters of The Merchant of Venice and Othello come together to create new intrigues. With constantly snappy dialogue and just enough raunchy bits to be endearing rather than gratuitous, The Serpent of Venice is a fun read that can border on intellectual if you squint hard enough.
I have not read the original source material by Poe regarding the serpent, so at first it seemed a bit out of place for an otherwise magic-free story, but there's always a bloody ghost, so might as well throw in a mythical creature!
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