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Synopsis
Amy Levy(1861-89) was born in London to a relatively wealthy Anglo-Jewish family. At the age of 15 she was sent to Brighton High School and later attended Cambridge University where she was the first Jewish student at Newnham College. She left Cambridge without taking her degree but became a prolific writer of poetry, essays and articles and in 1888 published her first novel The Romance of a Shop.
The central theme of Reuben Sachs, also published in 1888, is the relationship between Reuben and Judith Quixano, but some understanding of the history of the Jewish community in England is necessary for a full appreciation of this deeply moving novel. Much progress had been made and economic prosperity achieved since Jews returned to England in the 1650s, having been expelled by Edward 1 in 1290.
A significant theme of the novel is the difference between the so-called Sephardi Jews (from Spain via Amsterdam) and Ashkenzi Jews (from Poland and Eastern Europe). Reuben Sachs is Ashkenazi while Judith Quixano is Sephardi.
Amy Levy did not shrink from criticising some features of the Jewish community, which she consistently refers to in Reuben Sachs as ‘the tribe’. He frankness led to her being accused by some of anti-semitism. She in turn was openly critical of what she considered to be an inaccurate and over-romanticised view of British Jews as portrayed in the novel Daniel Deronda published by George Elliott in 1876. She was particularly critical of Elliot’s portrayal of Jews as orientals yearning for a return to Palestine
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Reuben Sachs
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