TALES OF MENDELE THE BOOK PEDDLER: Fishke the Lame and Benjamin the Third (Library of Yiddish Classics) - Hardcover

Abramovitsh, S.Y.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805241361 ISBN 13: 9780805241365

Publisher: Schocken, 1996

Synopsis

Two novellas by the founder of modern Yiddish fiction--"Fishke the Lame" and "The Brief Travels of Benjamin the Third"--depict small-town Jewish life in Russia

About this title

Review:

Dan Miron, a professor of Hebrew at both Columbia University and Hebrew University in Jerusalem, explains in a scholarly 70-page introduction that Mendele, the book peddler, was not so much a pseudonym used by Sholem Yankev Abramovitsh as an alternative identity. Abramovitsh, already an established writer of sophisticated Hebrew criticism and short stories, created the character of Mendele in 1863 to allow him to write in vernacular Yiddish, which at that time was considered a barrier to modernity by intellectual cosmopolitan Jews. Later, Mendele's hilarious, digressive, and compassionate tales were recognized as classics of the language. Presented here are marvelous translations of the exploits of Benjamin the Third, a Jewish Don Quixote; and Fishke the Lame, a long-suffering beggar.

From the Inside Flap:

father of modern Yiddish fiction, Abramovitsh created a rich tapestry of small-town Jewish life in the Russian Pale of Settlement with stories full of humor, heart, and homespun truths. Here are two of his best-known and best-loved tales: "Fishke the Lame" and "Benjamin the Third."

About this edition

• Publisher: Schocken
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0805241361
• ISBN 13: 9780805241365
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 400