Table of Contents

• Note on transliteration Map: The World of Mendele Mocher Sefarim Introduction 1 The Five Twice-Told Novels 2 Mendele and Abramowitz: Anatomy of Self-Caricature 3 Antisemitism and Jewish Self-Hate in Mendele 4 Mendele's Realism and the Struggle for Change 5 Loss and Wandering in Mendele Conclusion Bibliography Index

About the Author

David Aberbach is Associate Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature, McGill University, Montreal, and is the author of At the Handles of the Lock: Themes in the Fiction of S. J. Agnon (1984, now out of print), also published by the Littman Library.

Reviews

'A useful introduction ... Aberbach is rightly critical of, as well as enthusiastic about, his author. Transliterations of Hebrew and translations of Yiddish help the non-specialist.' Forum for Modern Language Studies 'There is much in this book on Mendele's confused psychological state of mind, even seeking to interpret the dreams described in his stories as indicative of that state ... This book will do much to take readers beyond the stereotypical image of Mendele as the amusing satirist of shtetl mores and provoke interest in him as a key figure in modern Jewish literature.' Barry Davis, Jewish Book News & Reviews 'Considerable achievement in making Mendele's writing more accessible to English readers.' Risa Domb, Jewish Chronicle 'Aberbach has now performed the difficult and vastly important feat of rendering a mass of remote material accessible to the general public, offering an account of the sources and their versions, summarizing their contents, and also making it available to the English-speaking reader. There are also very valuable extracts presented in the original languages, together with an account of the editions.' Leon I. Yudkin, Journal of Semitic Studies