Esther

by Nathaniel Norsen Weinreb

Esther is a book written by Nathaniel Norsen Weinreb that tells the story of Esther, a Jewish woman who becomes queen of Persia and saves her people from a plot to destroy them. The book is a retelling of the biblical story of Esther, but with added details and insights into the characters and events. The story begins with King Ahasuerus throwing a lavish party and then summoning his queen, Vashti, to appear before him. When she refuses, he banishes her and begins a search for a new queen. Esther, a young Jewish woman living in Persia, is chosen as the new queen, but she keeps her Jewish identity a secret. Meanwhile, the king's advisor, Haman, hatches a plot to exterminate all the Jews in Persia. Esther's cousin, Mordechai, urges her to reveal her Jewish identity to the king and plead for her people's lives. Esther bravely approaches the king and reveals her true identity, and with the help of Mordechai, she is able to thwart Haman's plot and save her people. The book is a gripping tale of courage, faith, and the power of one person to make a difference.A Novel Based On The Life Of The Biblical Heroine.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

Genres: Historical

316 pages, Hardcover

First published July 30, 2011

Reviews

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book right after struggling to read John Marco's The Eyes of God, and it was like a breath of fresh air. There were no immediate historical anachronisms that jumped out at me. The characters actually talked like people might have in 400s BC Persia (although Weinreb had an aversion to the word "do," which was a little annoying). The political intrigue, involving princes, members of the military, and eunuchs, was interesting. However, as I read on, the book's flaws became more prominent.

The main problem of the book is that Weinreb wrote his characters having viewpoints from 20th-century America. According to him, the Jews believed in similar democratic ideals as the Greeks did. I don't know much about Judaism in the Achaemenid Empire, but I'm willing to bet that support for democracy was not a part of it. At the end, Weinreb wrote Mordecai praising democracy and basically saying that democratic societies would always win over monarchies. I doubt anybody living in the 5th century BC would have said something like that. Even among the Greeks, Athenian democracy was considered unusual.

The most unrealistic portrayal is of Esther herself. Weinreb presented her as a strong-willed, proto-feminist figure who was always angry that women were second-class citizens in Persia. He seemed to have forgotten that women were second-class citizens among the Hebrews too. Did he forget about the rules and regulations for women in Leviticus? Her low status compared to the king and male nobles should not have been news to her. Her character development is muddled too. She goes from irrationally hating all Persians to somehow liking Xerxes I and thinking about how handsome he is. She jumps from scrupulously keeping kosher to blithely eating non-kosher meat and shellfish with just the thought, "Welp, diet isn't important enough for God to punish me for." She doesn't even appear that often, which is strange, considering that the book is named after her.

Mordecai is also a secondary character compared to Xerxes, Haman, and Prince Memucan. It was surprising that fewer chapters were devoted to the Jewish characters than to the gentile characters, especially since Weinreb was writing an obvious allegory for the Holocaust. (Haman is portrayed just like Hitler: he makes rousing speeches to bloodthirsty crowds, has a pathological hatred for the Jews, and even adopts the swastika as his emblem!) The only named Jewish characters are Mordecai, Esther, their two servants, and an unscrupulous herb dealer. For the most part, the Jews are crowds of nameless victims at risk of genocide by Haman. I would have preferred to read about more fleshed-out Jewish characters.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. The political intrigue was solid and well-written, the minutiae of life in ancient Persia seemed accurate, Prince Memucan and Haman were effective villains, and Xerxes was a complex, well-developed character. If the characters' opinions and beliefs had been historically accurate and if Esther and Mordecai had been developed more, I would have given "Esther" a higher rating.