The Rise of David Levinsky - Softcover

Cahan, Abraham

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0486425177 ISBN 13: 9780486425177

Publisher: Dover Publications, 2002

Synopsis

Acclaimed by literary critic Carl Van Doren as "the most important of all immigrant novels," The Rise of David Levinsky takes place amid America's biggest and most diverse Yiddish-speaking community during the early 20th century. David Levinsky, a young Hasidic Jew struggling to master the Talmud, seeks his fortune amid the teeming streets of New York's Lower East Side. All the energy formerly focused on his religious studies now turns in the direction of rising to the top of the business world, where he discovers the high price of assimilation. Author Abraham Cahan founded and edited the Jewish Daily Forward, the world's most widely read Yiddish paper, and his direct experience contributes mightily to the authenticity of this monumental work.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

The Rise of David Levinsky, written by the legendary founder and editor of the Jewish Daily Forward, is an early Jewish-American classic. According to the scholar Sam B. Girgus, "The novel is more than an important literary work and cultural document. It forms part of the traditional ritual of renewal of the American Way."

First published in 1917, Abraham Cahan's realistic novel tells the story of a young talmudic scholar who emigrates from a small town in Russia to the melting pot of turn-of-the-century New York City. As the Jewish "greenhorn" rises from the depths of poverty to become a millionaire garment merchant, he discovers the unbearably high price of assimilation.

From the Back Cover:

"It is one of the best fictional studies of Jewish character available in English, and at the same time an intimate and sophisticated account of American business culture."
--Isaac Rosenfeld

About this edition

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0486425177
• ISBN 13: 9780486425177
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 372