The World According to Itzik: Selected Poetry and Prose - Hardcover

Itzik Manger

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300092482 ISBN 13: 9780300092486

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2002

Synopsis

In the years between 1929 and 1939, when Itzik Manger wrote most of the poetry and fiction that made him famous, his name among Yiddish readers was a household word. Called the Shelley of Yiddish, he was characterized as being "drunk with talent." This book-the first full-length anthology of Manger's work-displays the full range of his genius in poetry, fiction, and criticism. The book begins with an extensive historical, biographical, and literary-critical introduction to Manger's work. There are then excerpts from a novel, The Book of Paradise, three short stories, autobiographical essays, critical essays, and finally, Manger's magnificent poetry-ballads, bible poems, personal lyrics, and the Megilla Songs. These works, which have the patina of myths acquired ages ago, also offer modern psychological insight and irrepressible humor. With Manger we make the leap into the Jewish twentieth century, as he recreates the past in all its layered expressiveness and interprets it with modernist sensibilities.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"Manger's deceptively folkish style, which mixes fantasy and autobiography, Biblical plots and a fin-de-siècle East European setting, pathos and parody, angels' wings and social protest, the lyric and dramatic, has been brilliantly rendered into English by Leonard Wolf."—Ruth R. Wisse

About the Author:

Leonard Wolf is a distinguished novelist and translator of Yiddish books, short stories, and poetry. He has taught courses in New York University's School of Continuing Education since his retirement from San Francisco State University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0300092482
• ISBN 13: 9780300092486
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256