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The Tevye Stories and Others
Sholom Aleichem was the great Yiddish story-teller whose classic tales of Jewish life in Eastern Europe under the Czars are filled with rib-tickling humor and cockeyed, preposterous, but lovable characters. This collection includes all the famous "Tevye Stories," a series of self-contained, tragic-comic episodes from the life of Tevye, the dairyman, and his seven lovely daughters--as well as many other favorites, including "the Yom Kippur Scandal" and "the Enchanted Tailor." The Broadway hit and mega-hit "Fiddler on the Roof", staring Zero Mostel, is based on the theme and characters in the "Tevye Stories."
Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1894
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About the author
Sholom Aleichem
289 books188 followersRussian-born American humorist Sholem Aleichem or Sholom Aleichem, originally Solomon Rabinowitz, in Yiddish originally wrote stories and plays, the basis for the musical
Fiddler on the Roof
.
He wrote under the pen name, Hebrew for "peace be upon you."
From 1883, he produced more than forty volumes as a central figure in literature before 1890.
His notable narratives accurately described shtetl life with the naturalness of speech of his characters. Early critics focused on the cheerfulness of the characters, interpreted as a way of coping with adversity. Later critics saw a tragic side. Because of the similar style of the author with the pen name of Mark Twain, people often referred to Aleichem as the Jewish version of Twain. Both authors wrote for adults and children and lectured extensively in Europe and the United States.
He wrote under the pen name, Hebrew for "peace be upon you."
From 1883, he produced more than forty volumes as a central figure in literature before 1890.
His notable narratives accurately described shtetl life with the naturalness of speech of his characters. Early critics focused on the cheerfulness of the characters, interpreted as a way of coping with adversity. Later critics saw a tragic side. Because of the similar style of the author with the pen name of Mark Twain, people often referred to Aleichem as the Jewish version of Twain. Both authors wrote for adults and children and lectured extensively in Europe and the United States.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 9, 2009
According to the foreword, these stories lose a lot in translation. But they were still a great read. The stories on which "Fiddler on the Roof" was based are in here, and the musical seems to have kept surprisingly close to the text and feeling of the stories. (Except for the big dance numbers of course.) This is why "Fiddler" is so sad. I haven't read much other literature from this place and time but I cannot accuse Sholom Aleichem of romanticizing the old country. Life there was extremely cruel.
Personally, as a non-Jew married to an ethnic Jew, I found the most heartbreaking stories dealt with apostasy. The daughter who marries a non-converting Christian is considered dead. I have tried to feel sympathy for this practice (in other religions as well as Judaism) but I cannot see it as anything but an arbitrary and anti-human rule that makes sense on paper but in reality is both immoral and contrary to the survival of a healthy community.
I'm grateful to live in a time when all sides of our family can accept us as people.
Personally, as a non-Jew married to an ethnic Jew, I found the most heartbreaking stories dealt with apostasy. The daughter who marries a non-converting Christian is considered dead. I have tried to feel sympathy for this practice (in other religions as well as Judaism) but I cannot see it as anything but an arbitrary and anti-human rule that makes sense on paper but in reality is both immoral and contrary to the survival of a healthy community.
I'm grateful to live in a time when all sides of our family can accept us as people.
June 7, 2021
I just finished The Tevye Stories and Others by Sholom Aleichem. First off it is a great book and a true classic. The stories in the book were the kernel behind the Broadway show "Fiddler on the Roof." The foil for many of the stories is Tevye, a luckless dairyman. In the first story, The Bubble, Tevye is conned into investing what little savings he has with a self-promoting swindler, who asks him to imagine life being wealthy. This gives rise to the famous song from the show, "If I Were a Rich Man." Some of the other stories similarly relate to scenes or songs from the show.
The setting for both the stories and the show is the collapse of Czarist Russia and the even swifter implosion of Russian Jewish life. At one time this was the capital of world Jewry. During the period roughly from the early 1880's on, millions of Russian Jews escaped, most to New York City and some to Palestine. This book attempts to detail the world before and during the early days of the destruction of a great culture. This was a world inhabited by "rebbes" and other Jewish notables. The combination of ocean transit and the inhabitants' brutality pushed out first the brightest and most motivated, and then with the particularly shocking pogroms many more.
Returning to the book, the short stories are almost all heartbreaking. There are few happy endings. This was true of the book, the Broadway show and ultimately Jewish life in Europe.
The setting for both the stories and the show is the collapse of Czarist Russia and the even swifter implosion of Russian Jewish life. At one time this was the capital of world Jewry. During the period roughly from the early 1880's on, millions of Russian Jews escaped, most to New York City and some to Palestine. This book attempts to detail the world before and during the early days of the destruction of a great culture. This was a world inhabited by "rebbes" and other Jewish notables. The combination of ocean transit and the inhabitants' brutality pushed out first the brightest and most motivated, and then with the particularly shocking pogroms many more.
Returning to the book, the short stories are almost all heartbreaking. There are few happy endings. This was true of the book, the Broadway show and ultimately Jewish life in Europe.
January 3, 2009
Every little Jewish girl grows up knowing of "Fiddler On The Roof", this is what the play is based on. As I read the book though, I was saddened by what I read, not because the stories were written badly but, because they were written according to what was a very real situation of the times- Pogroms. My family in Odessa was forced out due to Pogroms, and it gave me a very real glimpse of what they might have gone through.
April 8, 2019
This collection contains the stories which were adapted to become the musical "Fiddler on the Roof". But neither the events portrayed in the musical nor especially the stories upon which the musical was based, were mostly cheerful. Sholom Aleichem's genius lay in showing us how the inhabitants of the shtetls coped with their lives in in spite of poverty, persecution, tragedy, and the occasional joyous celebration. The introduction is outstanding, and a glossary at theback explains many of the Yiddish and Hebrew terms.
April 9, 2010
We are Sephardi Jews, so pogroms and yiddishkeit are not my heritage.
When I was about 14, my father gave me a book called "Tevye and his Seven Daughters" I enjoyed this as I did most books. When we went to see "Fiddler on the Roof" few months later, I was delighted to find that I was watching a musical of the book I had recently read. Both the book and the musical (and later the movie) have something to them that the other cannot show, so perfectly complement the other.
Anybody who thinks this is a lighthearted story just doesn't understand the tremendous amount of soul searching (and finding and cleansing) that the story holds, unconditional belief is not something inherent in my family, so I can understand Tevye's agony as he tries to make sense of the world in which he finds himself, being torn apart and spun around like an autumn leaf in the wind ... I can almost see God holding Tevye in his hand and blowing on him ...
It is a testimony to the writing style of Shalom Aleichem that it does make for such light reading.
I read this book over 40 years ago, and still remember what I learned from it. (Which may or may not have anything at all to do with anything else anybody else may have learned from it)
When I was about 14, my father gave me a book called "Tevye and his Seven Daughters" I enjoyed this as I did most books. When we went to see "Fiddler on the Roof" few months later, I was delighted to find that I was watching a musical of the book I had recently read. Both the book and the musical (and later the movie) have something to them that the other cannot show, so perfectly complement the other.
Anybody who thinks this is a lighthearted story just doesn't understand the tremendous amount of soul searching (and finding and cleansing) that the story holds, unconditional belief is not something inherent in my family, so I can understand Tevye's agony as he tries to make sense of the world in which he finds himself, being torn apart and spun around like an autumn leaf in the wind ... I can almost see God holding Tevye in his hand and blowing on him ...
It is a testimony to the writing style of Shalom Aleichem that it does make for such light reading.
I read this book over 40 years ago, and still remember what I learned from it. (Which may or may not have anything at all to do with anything else anybody else may have learned from it)
Want to read
September 24, 2009The stories that were the basis for Fiddler on the Roof and of course an author prominent in Horn's novel The World to Come.
February 12, 2013
Maybe my favorite book ever. It was so inspiring and heartfelt. I laughed and cried with Tevye all the way through this book. An amazing glimps at a piece of far gone history!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews