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Il re degli Schnorrer
Con il suo savoir faire e la sua stupefacente erudizione Manasse Bueno Barzillai Azevedo da Costa merita il titolo di re degli schnorrer per la sublime maestria nell'arte di scroccare ai ricchi della comunità con ingegno e "aristocrazia". Impareggiabile modello di letteratura umoristica, "Il re degli schnorrer" è una sequenza ininterrotta di situazioni e dialoghi esilaranti, scaturiti dalla penna del creatore della narrativa ebraica moderna.
Impareggiabile modello di letteratura umoristica, Il re degli schnorrer è una sequenza ininterrotta di situazioni e dialoghi esilaranti, scaturiti dalla penna del creatore della narrativa ebraica moderna.
Impareggiabile modello di letteratura umoristica, Il re degli schnorrer è una sequenza ininterrotta di situazioni e dialoghi esilaranti, scaturiti dalla penna del creatore della narrativa ebraica moderna.
232 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1894
10 people are currently reading
120 people want to read
About the author
Israel Zangwill
438 books33 followersIsrael Zangwill was a British novelist, short-story writer and dramatist.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 25, 2019
I don’t remember why I downloaded this book, I assume it had something to do with the title, but I found it a very enjoyable Twain-like collection from an author who was apparently one of the most famous Jews in the world during his time. The titular story was hilarious, that dude deserved his crown. Others in the collection ranged from good to forgettable, many reflecting Jewish life and many not. Happy I found this writer, I’d revisit him again.
September 10, 2013
An amusing satire, full of clever wit, and, incidently, a picture of the London Jewish society and culture of the late 18th century (or as Zangwill imagined it, anyway). But troubling. Had this book been written by a non-Jew, it might be disdained as an example of anti-Semetic charicature. I read this novelle shortly after reading Goodbye Columbus and Five Short Stories by P. Roth. Also a work of wit, satire, and revelation. Also troubling to many. Roth, though, is more subtle than Zangwill and more interested in exploring the tensions created between the teller and the telling.
October 10, 2015
Danke Jochen für diesen großartigen Buchtipp.
Noch nie zuvor habe ich von diesem Autor und schon gar nicht von diesem Buch gehört. Schlimm, schlimm - würde ich diesen Text nicht kennen. Allerdings ist diese Unkenntnis nur mir anzulasten. Ein wichtiger Mann im Judentum, und im anglikanischen Raum der Jahrhundertwende sehr wohl bekannt. Der Begriff "Schmelztigel" stammt zum Beispiel von ihm. Auch war er ein bekannter Krimiautor, Feminist und großer Pazifist. Dieses Buch ist eigentlich eine längere Erzählung, die jüdischen Witz mit britischem Humor auf so liebenswerte Weise verknüpft dass das einfach großes literarisches Lesevergnügen ist. Leider ist von Zangwill zur Zeit kein anderes Buch in deutscher Übersetzung zu bekommen. Sofort würde ich Zangwill weiter lesen.
Noch nie zuvor habe ich von diesem Autor und schon gar nicht von diesem Buch gehört. Schlimm, schlimm - würde ich diesen Text nicht kennen. Allerdings ist diese Unkenntnis nur mir anzulasten. Ein wichtiger Mann im Judentum, und im anglikanischen Raum der Jahrhundertwende sehr wohl bekannt. Der Begriff "Schmelztigel" stammt zum Beispiel von ihm. Auch war er ein bekannter Krimiautor, Feminist und großer Pazifist. Dieses Buch ist eigentlich eine längere Erzählung, die jüdischen Witz mit britischem Humor auf so liebenswerte Weise verknüpft dass das einfach großes literarisches Lesevergnügen ist. Leider ist von Zangwill zur Zeit kein anderes Buch in deutscher Übersetzung zu bekommen. Sofort würde ich Zangwill weiter lesen.
April 8, 2017
I own a 1921 edition published by The American Jewish Book Co. It sports a very thick cover and is illustrated with scores of wonderful drawings by several artists, including the author. The stories I've read so far are told with plenty of humor, wit, and Zangwill's eye for detail and characterization are top notch. What really impresses me is the way the author is able to strike a balance between humor, culture and the religious life. Though the portraits he paints are sometimes harsh, they are also honest and not meant to belittle. He takes us into an unfamiliar world, but one that occupies a prominent place in history (or should). This is entertainment well-crafted, and worthy of many visits.
April 22, 2025
I’d first read Israel Zangwill’s book The Big Bow Mystery, a locked room novel set in the London area of Bow, not one about a big bow. The mystery itself, though ingenious, is really a skeleton to introduce outsized, entertaining characters and dialogue, an impulse which is given full expression in King of the Schnorrers.
The book is set in the Jewish communities of London at the end of the eighteenth century, a time Zangwill regards as “while the most picturesque period of Anglo-Jewish history, it has never before been exploited in fiction.” The time is introduced as one of great hostility to the Jewish people of London, with them being denied “every civil liberty but paying taxes” and the Gentleman’s Magazine having nothing but invective at the “infidel alien”. Yet the first character the reader is introduced to, Grobstock, is leaving a synagogue who had been patriotically praying for the return to health of King George and is carrying a large bag of money he has earned as a member of the East-India Trading Company. “There was no middle-class to speak of in the eighteenth century Jewry; the world was divided into the rich and poor, and the rich were very, very rich and the poor very, very, poor, so everyone knew his station.”
Grobstock is met by a crowd of schnorrers. These are beggars, but very particular ones. They don’t fein madness like the eighteenth century Abram men, nor do they fake illness or injury. Nor do they ask for alms as a favour but as a right, the Talmud instructs wealthy jews to give charitably to those who need it, so these beggars are claiming charity that is rightfully theirs. To add an element of a game to his giving, Grobstock has painstakingly wrapped differing sums of money in paper packets, giving them out to the schnorrers and delighting at their different reactions to the different sums.
Having done this, he walks towards his house, pleased at a good deal done in a fun way. He meets another schnorrer on his way back. This man is different to the others, while they have tried to dress as Londoners, this man is dressed in an outlandish garb, with a makeshift turban on his head, a bushy, black beard and layers of clothes and scarves - a little Faginish. Grobstock offers the stranger one of his packets and, to his terrible luck, it’s the one packet with nothing in it. Rather than taking it as a joke, the stranger launches into an invective, fluent in the language of the Talmud which rather sets him back.
This figure is the hero of the book, Manassah Bueno Barzillai Azevedo de Costa, the self-styled King of the Schnorrers. One of his lines of attack against Grobstock is that Manassah is a Sephardic Jew, descended from the Jews of Spain and Portugal, where Grobstock is an Ashkenazi, descended from the ghettos of Germany and Poland (as indeed, Zangwill was). This divide between the two branches of Judaism, with their different customs, histories and Hebrew pronunciation becomes one of the big themes of the book. The Sephardic Jews have the glamour and (self appointed) nobility of the grand old courts of Granada, they came to London first and regard the Ashkenazi as gutter scum pouring in from the continent. Even as Grobstock is far richer than Manassah, there is a sense he is lesser in inheritance.
One of the joys of the book is how Zangwill portrays the sheer unstoppable force of Manassah. He is relentless, able to twist any comment or action into an insult that needs repaying, or a gift that needs taking. He is able to twist the words of Moses into any form he needs and does so with an entitlement that very few of the other characters are able to combat. It’s this picture of an immense force of personality wedded with the ability to pivot in any direction at any time. His manner of entering a room is described as “always a search warrant”. What’s more, he’s not a Bus Bunny like trickster, he never smiles and winks and seems to fully believe each pivot, each twisting of law and convention, even as he contradicts himself. Zangwill says that if he “had more humour, he would have had less momentum” and it’s the momentum of this character on everyone around him that makes the book more entertaining.
Grobstock ends this encounter poorer and, worst of all, having extended a Friday night dinner offer to Manassah. When he turns up, he has an even poorer, Ashkenazi schnorrer in his train called Yankelé. This man is more a common trickster figure, seemingly more conscious of his tricks and elisions. Through the course of the book, he manages to win Manassah’s respect and the hand of his daughter in marriage.
This is an outrage for the Portuguese synagogue. No daughter of theirs is to marry an Ashkenazi, and Manassah’s next mission is to find ways of tricking, talking and bullying them into it. On the way he manages to secure his daughter a dowry far outside of his means and a permanent pension, securing himself forever, the title of King of the Schnorrers.
This book is a fascinating, comical glance at a side of eighteenth century London that I haven’t encountered before. A world where there are members of an oppressed and very close-knit community (or rather, two communities with a power imbalance built in), who include extremely wealthy bankers, even a fashionable ‘beau’ but also poor scholars and lay-preachers. There’s a sense of a world in itself, where all the other aspects of London life are of distant importance to synagogical politics. Also interesting were the locations. There were the City banking locations, but not so much of the East End, Cable Street kinds of places, and nothing of Golder’s Green. The main centres seem to be south of the river, or way out in Hackney.
It’s also the story of a wonderful wrecking ball of a character who smashes his way through all problems. I’m glad he had a happy ending. I’m also glad I don’t have to deal with him.
The book is set in the Jewish communities of London at the end of the eighteenth century, a time Zangwill regards as “while the most picturesque period of Anglo-Jewish history, it has never before been exploited in fiction.” The time is introduced as one of great hostility to the Jewish people of London, with them being denied “every civil liberty but paying taxes” and the Gentleman’s Magazine having nothing but invective at the “infidel alien”. Yet the first character the reader is introduced to, Grobstock, is leaving a synagogue who had been patriotically praying for the return to health of King George and is carrying a large bag of money he has earned as a member of the East-India Trading Company. “There was no middle-class to speak of in the eighteenth century Jewry; the world was divided into the rich and poor, and the rich were very, very rich and the poor very, very, poor, so everyone knew his station.”
Grobstock is met by a crowd of schnorrers. These are beggars, but very particular ones. They don’t fein madness like the eighteenth century Abram men, nor do they fake illness or injury. Nor do they ask for alms as a favour but as a right, the Talmud instructs wealthy jews to give charitably to those who need it, so these beggars are claiming charity that is rightfully theirs. To add an element of a game to his giving, Grobstock has painstakingly wrapped differing sums of money in paper packets, giving them out to the schnorrers and delighting at their different reactions to the different sums.
Having done this, he walks towards his house, pleased at a good deal done in a fun way. He meets another schnorrer on his way back. This man is different to the others, while they have tried to dress as Londoners, this man is dressed in an outlandish garb, with a makeshift turban on his head, a bushy, black beard and layers of clothes and scarves - a little Faginish. Grobstock offers the stranger one of his packets and, to his terrible luck, it’s the one packet with nothing in it. Rather than taking it as a joke, the stranger launches into an invective, fluent in the language of the Talmud which rather sets him back.
This figure is the hero of the book, Manassah Bueno Barzillai Azevedo de Costa, the self-styled King of the Schnorrers. One of his lines of attack against Grobstock is that Manassah is a Sephardic Jew, descended from the Jews of Spain and Portugal, where Grobstock is an Ashkenazi, descended from the ghettos of Germany and Poland (as indeed, Zangwill was). This divide between the two branches of Judaism, with their different customs, histories and Hebrew pronunciation becomes one of the big themes of the book. The Sephardic Jews have the glamour and (self appointed) nobility of the grand old courts of Granada, they came to London first and regard the Ashkenazi as gutter scum pouring in from the continent. Even as Grobstock is far richer than Manassah, there is a sense he is lesser in inheritance.
One of the joys of the book is how Zangwill portrays the sheer unstoppable force of Manassah. He is relentless, able to twist any comment or action into an insult that needs repaying, or a gift that needs taking. He is able to twist the words of Moses into any form he needs and does so with an entitlement that very few of the other characters are able to combat. It’s this picture of an immense force of personality wedded with the ability to pivot in any direction at any time. His manner of entering a room is described as “always a search warrant”. What’s more, he’s not a Bus Bunny like trickster, he never smiles and winks and seems to fully believe each pivot, each twisting of law and convention, even as he contradicts himself. Zangwill says that if he “had more humour, he would have had less momentum” and it’s the momentum of this character on everyone around him that makes the book more entertaining.
Grobstock ends this encounter poorer and, worst of all, having extended a Friday night dinner offer to Manassah. When he turns up, he has an even poorer, Ashkenazi schnorrer in his train called Yankelé. This man is more a common trickster figure, seemingly more conscious of his tricks and elisions. Through the course of the book, he manages to win Manassah’s respect and the hand of his daughter in marriage.
This is an outrage for the Portuguese synagogue. No daughter of theirs is to marry an Ashkenazi, and Manassah’s next mission is to find ways of tricking, talking and bullying them into it. On the way he manages to secure his daughter a dowry far outside of his means and a permanent pension, securing himself forever, the title of King of the Schnorrers.
This book is a fascinating, comical glance at a side of eighteenth century London that I haven’t encountered before. A world where there are members of an oppressed and very close-knit community (or rather, two communities with a power imbalance built in), who include extremely wealthy bankers, even a fashionable ‘beau’ but also poor scholars and lay-preachers. There’s a sense of a world in itself, where all the other aspects of London life are of distant importance to synagogical politics. Also interesting were the locations. There were the City banking locations, but not so much of the East End, Cable Street kinds of places, and nothing of Golder’s Green. The main centres seem to be south of the river, or way out in Hackney.
It’s also the story of a wonderful wrecking ball of a character who smashes his way through all problems. I’m glad he had a happy ending. I’m also glad I don’t have to deal with him.
February 2, 2013
Amusing, at times hilarious insight into Jewish life in London at the turn of the 18th century. Menasseh Da Costa, the title character, is vividly drawn, and is voiced spot-on by Adrian Praetz-Ellis in the free audiobook edition at librevox.org
February 11, 2012
Happened upon this book accidentally and I loved it. It's a very clever and funny story of Jewish beggars.
Read
October 10, 2019Brilliant.
February 15, 2024
Libro molto divertente e spassoso. Le avventure bizzarre di uno schnorrer raccontate con il tipico umorismo ebraico, molto pungete e con retrogusto amaro.
Manasse Bueno Barzillai Azevedo Da Costa, il re degli schnorrer, è un personaggio unico, assurdo e con un codice a cui non viene mai meno.
Una lettura spensierata, leggera, che regala tante risate.
Meriterebbe più di 3 stelle, ma 4 forse sono un po' tante.
Manasse Bueno Barzillai Azevedo Da Costa, il re degli schnorrer, è un personaggio unico, assurdo e con un codice a cui non viene mai meno.
Una lettura spensierata, leggera, che regala tante risate.
Meriterebbe più di 3 stelle, ma 4 forse sono un po' tante.
April 23, 2023
A charming comedy about a wily sefardi beggar who manages to fleece and humiliate all the leaders of his community. Outwitted by a beggar from the Ashkenazi community, Manasseh da Costa triumphs again when he turns his daughter's wedding to his advantage and obtains a life pension from his synagogue.
May 23, 2024
I’m finally going to include the audiobooks I “read,” and this is the most recent. I enjoyed the humour of this satire, though the main character is annoyingly manipulative at times. It’s an interesting commentary on the Jewish community in London in the late 1800s.
June 16, 2017
Lyttet til med mobilappen LivriVox. Oppleseren Adrian gjør en god jobb! Men jeg likte ikke selve boka.
July 4, 2020
So funny!
March 10, 2021
Entertaining and insightful. A real window into another time and place. I laughed out loud several times.
July 23, 2016
The book is quite comical. The bantering back and forth really cemented the Schnorrer aspect, and gave it an in depth perspective on those who were schnorrers and how they defended and justified themselves, verbally.
Attitudes are definitely illuminated. How one perceives themselves in regards to others is depicted vividly.
The book is written with a large portion of it in broken English, or English written phonetically with an immigrant's accent, as spoken by a Jewish man. Such words as "with" are pronounced "Vid", or the word "will" is pronounced "vill", for example. I am always mindful of the time period and the individuals speaking, so for me it was not an issue. This book was published in 1894, and I kept that in mind while reading it.
I found myself laughing out loud while reading this book. Yet, within the humor, there is a serious undertone regarding Jewish society and its financial diversities. Responsibility for others is a strong theme.
I enjoyed The King of Schnorrers immensely.
Attitudes are definitely illuminated. How one perceives themselves in regards to others is depicted vividly.
The book is written with a large portion of it in broken English, or English written phonetically with an immigrant's accent, as spoken by a Jewish man. Such words as "with" are pronounced "Vid", or the word "will" is pronounced "vill", for example. I am always mindful of the time period and the individuals speaking, so for me it was not an issue. This book was published in 1894, and I kept that in mind while reading it.
I found myself laughing out loud while reading this book. Yet, within the humor, there is a serious undertone regarding Jewish society and its financial diversities. Responsibility for others is a strong theme.
I enjoyed The King of Schnorrers immensely.
January 9, 2012
I was amused.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews