In envisioning Shylock as Shakespeare's covert double, Gross probes the character's peculiar isolation, ambivalence, opacity, and dark humor.Shylock's complex afterlife is one measure of his power, and Gross also explores his transformations in the work of such writers as Jorge Luis Borges, Heinrich Heine, and Philip Roth, as well as his uncanny way of mirroring the ambiguous nature of Jewishness