Pioneers: A Tale of Russian-Jewish Life in the 1880s (Jewish Literature and Culture) - Hardcover

An-sky, S. A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0253012090 ISBN 13: 9780253012098

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 2014

Synopsis

S. A. An-sky's novel dramatizes the dilemmas of Jewish young people in late Tsarist Russia as they strive to throw off their traditional religious upbringing to adopt a secular and modern identity. The action unfolds in the town of M. in the Pale of Settlement, where an engaging cast of characters wrestles with cultural and social issues. Their exploits culminate in helping a young Jewish woman evade an arranged marriage and a young Russian woman leave home so she can pursue her studies at a European university. This startling novel reveals the tensions and triumphs of coming of age in a revolutionary time.

About this title

About the Author

S. A. An-sky, pseudonym of Shloyme-Zanvl Rapoport (1863-1920), was a Russian Jewish writer, ethnographer, and cultural and political activist. He is best known today for his play The Dybbuk.

Michael R. Katz is C. V. Starr Professor Emeritus of Russian and East European Studies at Middlebury College. He is author of Dreams and the Unconscious in Nineteenth-Century Russian Fiction and is translator of a dozen Russian novels, including works by Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky.

Review

"An-sky brilliantly captures a week in the life of young Jewish intellectuals fleeing their tiny villages to find the possibility of personal growth in larger towns where the enlightenment has begun to work its way. "

(Jewish Book Council)

"Michael R. Katz’s translation renders another Russian literary gem into fluid and lively English.... The publication of Pioneers in English... appears at an auspicious moment, for readers today may be more receptive than ever to narratives that convey the richness, complexity, and diversity of Jewish life in times of dynamic and decisive change. "

(Marginalia)

About this edition

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0253012090
• ISBN 13: 9780253012098
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 164