What do you think?
Rate this book
Dans les cercles de la bourgeoisie juive de Saint-Pétersbourg, en ces années 1910, on ne parle que du prochain mariage de Zakhari Mirkin, fils d’un riche homme d’affaires, avec la fille de l’avocat Halperine, dont la renommée s’étend à tout l’Empire, attirant aussi bien les puissants que les rebelles opprimés par le régime.
Mais Zakhari ne se reconnaît pas dans ce milieu. Il sait ce qu’il ne veut pas : ressembler à son père, mu par l’amour du luxe et du pouvoir, cachant sa judéité comme il cache sa liaison adultère. Tandis qu’il se rapproche des juifs malheureux, dont il aime la foi, les espoirs et les révoltes, Zakhari découvre qu’il parle et comprend mystérieusement leur langue, le yiddish…
C’est le début d’une quête d’identité à travers les milieux et les destins juifs les plus divers car, écrivait Stefan Zweig, «c’est dans le cœur juif que Schalom Asch entend le mieux battre le cœur du monde ».
L’un des principaux auteurs modernes de langue yiddish et le premier à jouir d'une renommée mondial, Schalom Asch (1880-1957) a connu de grands succès au théâtre et bâti une œuvre romanesque dominé par la trilogie "Après le Déluge" dont "Pétersbourg" (1929) est le premier volet, suivi de "Varsovie", (1930) et "Moscou" (1931).
Mais Zakhari ne se reconnaît pas dans ce milieu. Il sait ce qu’il ne veut pas : ressembler à son père, mu par l’amour du luxe et du pouvoir, cachant sa judéité comme il cache sa liaison adultère. Tandis qu’il se rapproche des juifs malheureux, dont il aime la foi, les espoirs et les révoltes, Zakhari découvre qu’il parle et comprend mystérieusement leur langue, le yiddish…
C’est le début d’une quête d’identité à travers les milieux et les destins juifs les plus divers car, écrivait Stefan Zweig, «c’est dans le cœur juif que Schalom Asch entend le mieux battre le cœur du monde ».
L’un des principaux auteurs modernes de langue yiddish et le premier à jouir d'une renommée mondial, Schalom Asch (1880-1957) a connu de grands succès au théâtre et bâti une œuvre romanesque dominé par la trilogie "Après le Déluge" dont "Pétersbourg" (1929) est le premier volet, suivi de "Varsovie", (1930) et "Moscou" (1931).
- GenresRoman
421 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1929
About the author
Sholem Asch
258 books38 followersPolish-American writer Sholem Asch (also written Shalom Ash, Yiddish: שלום אַש, Polish: Szalom Asz) sought to reconcile Judaism and Christianity in his controversial novels, such as
The Nazarene
(1939). Sholem Asch composed dramas and essays in the Yiddish language.
Frajda Malka bore Asch and nine other children to Moszek Asz, a cattle-dealer and innkeeper. Asch received a traditional Hasidic eduction and later obtained a more liberal education at Włocławek, where he supported himself by writing letters for the illiterate townspeople. He moved to Warsaw and met and married Mathilde Shapiro, the daughter of Menahem Mendel Shapiro.
The Haskalah or Hebrew enlightenment initially influenced Asch. His earliest writing was in Hebrew, but Isaac Leib Peretz convinced him to switch to Yiddish. The plot of God of Vengeance , his drama of 1907. features a lesbian relationship in a brothel. He traveled to Palestine in 1908 and to the United States in 1910, finally emigrating to the latter in 1914. He sat out World War I in the United States and was naturalized as a citizen in 1920.
His Kiddush ha-Shem (1919), one of the earliest historical novels in modern Yiddish literature, concerns the anti-Semitic uprising of Khmelnytsky in mid-17th century Ukraine. In 1920, in honor of his 40th birthday, a committee of his fans published a 12-volume set of his collected works (up to that time).
When his play God of Vengeance was performed on Broadway in 1923, authorities arrested and successfully prosecuted the entire cast on obscenity charges. (However, the convictions were overturned on appeal.) But in Europe, the play was popular was popular enough to be translated into German, Polish, Russian, Hebrew, Italian, Czech, Romanian, and Norwegian.
His trilogy Farn Mabul or Before the Flood , translated into English as Three Cities 1929-31), describes early 20th century Jewish life in Saint Petersburg, Warsaw, and Moscow. In 1932, the republic of Poland awarded him the decoration of Polonia Restituta, and in the same year he was elected honorary president of the Yiddish PEN Club.
He later moved to France and visited Palestine again in 1936. His Dos Gezang fun Tol ( The Song of the Valley ), about the halutzim or Zionist pioneers in Palestine, reflects that visit. His next work, Bayrn Opgrunt (1937), translated into English as The Precipice , is set in Germany during the hyperinflation of the 1920s. In 1939, he returned to the United States.
His trilogy The Apostle (1939), The Nazarene (1943) and Mary (1949), which dealt with figures from the New Testament, offended many Jews. The Forward , the leading Yiddish language newspaper of New York, dropped him as a writer and openly attacked him for supposedly promoting Christianity.
Asch spent most his last two years in Bat Yam near Tel Aviv, Israel but died in London. His house in Bat Yam now houses his namesake museum. Yale University holds the bulk of his library, which contains rare books and manuscripts, including some of his own works.
Frajda Malka bore Asch and nine other children to Moszek Asz, a cattle-dealer and innkeeper. Asch received a traditional Hasidic eduction and later obtained a more liberal education at Włocławek, where he supported himself by writing letters for the illiterate townspeople. He moved to Warsaw and met and married Mathilde Shapiro, the daughter of Menahem Mendel Shapiro.
The Haskalah or Hebrew enlightenment initially influenced Asch. His earliest writing was in Hebrew, but Isaac Leib Peretz convinced him to switch to Yiddish. The plot of God of Vengeance , his drama of 1907. features a lesbian relationship in a brothel. He traveled to Palestine in 1908 and to the United States in 1910, finally emigrating to the latter in 1914. He sat out World War I in the United States and was naturalized as a citizen in 1920.
His Kiddush ha-Shem (1919), one of the earliest historical novels in modern Yiddish literature, concerns the anti-Semitic uprising of Khmelnytsky in mid-17th century Ukraine. In 1920, in honor of his 40th birthday, a committee of his fans published a 12-volume set of his collected works (up to that time).
When his play God of Vengeance was performed on Broadway in 1923, authorities arrested and successfully prosecuted the entire cast on obscenity charges. (However, the convictions were overturned on appeal.) But in Europe, the play was popular was popular enough to be translated into German, Polish, Russian, Hebrew, Italian, Czech, Romanian, and Norwegian.
His trilogy Farn Mabul or Before the Flood , translated into English as Three Cities 1929-31), describes early 20th century Jewish life in Saint Petersburg, Warsaw, and Moscow. In 1932, the republic of Poland awarded him the decoration of Polonia Restituta, and in the same year he was elected honorary president of the Yiddish PEN Club.
He later moved to France and visited Palestine again in 1936. His Dos Gezang fun Tol ( The Song of the Valley ), about the halutzim or Zionist pioneers in Palestine, reflects that visit. His next work, Bayrn Opgrunt (1937), translated into English as The Precipice , is set in Germany during the hyperinflation of the 1920s. In 1939, he returned to the United States.
His trilogy The Apostle (1939), The Nazarene (1943) and Mary (1949), which dealt with figures from the New Testament, offended many Jews. The Forward , the leading Yiddish language newspaper of New York, dropped him as a writer and openly attacked him for supposedly promoting Christianity.
Asch spent most his last two years in Bat Yam near Tel Aviv, Israel but died in London. His house in Bat Yam now houses his namesake museum. Yale University holds the bulk of his library, which contains rare books and manuscripts, including some of his own works.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 23, 2018
Romanzetto russo, con un po' di dostoieskismi e di verismo sentimentale, ma molto lontano dal modello. La storia dell'erede Mirkin, suo padre Gabriele (plutocrate ebreo), Nina (la fidanzata ereditiera), il dileipadre (avvocato di successo ebreo), e la dileimadre Olga (matrona russa ancora piacente con sfrizzoli di gioventù).
Asch butta sul tappeto ghiacciato una miriade di temi, tutti potenzialmente interessanti, ma senza svolgerne nessuno in modo compiuto*. L''ebraismo russo ricco e povero, i primi moti rivoluzionari, i tentennamenti del cuore giovane e meno giovane, un mènage à quatre che incrocia fidanzati e suoceri, una madre tradita e rinunciataria, tentativi di suicidio falliti, coquette e mogli tradite, figli portati al ladrocinio per vivere la bella vita.
Un mischione da cui non si salva molto, se non la descrizione del primo giorno di primavera (coincidente con la mia lettura!) con i blocchi di ghiaccio che corrono nella Neva con ancora le tracce degli abitanti, in una notte che è giorno caliginoso. Questa l'immagine potentissima del libro, e che rimasta nel mio immaginario. Il resto, mah, sarebbe da buttare se fosse stato scritto oggi, ma risale al 1929 e mi affascinano sempre le narrazioni "dal di dentro" di epoche storiche ricchissime di avvenimenti che si concretizzeranno in rivoluzioni sociali (chissà come finiranno l'avvocato e il plutocrate potentissimi, ma soprattutto i loro figli?)
*ci sarebbero anche altri due titoli a chiudere la trilogia, Varsavia (dove sembra di capire che si trasferirà Mirkin) e Mosca, che forse vale la pena leggere per chiudere il cerchio.
Asch butta sul tappeto ghiacciato una miriade di temi, tutti potenzialmente interessanti, ma senza svolgerne nessuno in modo compiuto*. L''ebraismo russo ricco e povero, i primi moti rivoluzionari, i tentennamenti del cuore giovane e meno giovane, un mènage à quatre che incrocia fidanzati e suoceri, una madre tradita e rinunciataria, tentativi di suicidio falliti, coquette e mogli tradite, figli portati al ladrocinio per vivere la bella vita.
Un mischione da cui non si salva molto, se non la descrizione del primo giorno di primavera (coincidente con la mia lettura!) con i blocchi di ghiaccio che corrono nella Neva con ancora le tracce degli abitanti, in una notte che è giorno caliginoso. Questa l'immagine potentissima del libro, e che rimasta nel mio immaginario. Il resto, mah, sarebbe da buttare se fosse stato scritto oggi, ma risale al 1929 e mi affascinano sempre le narrazioni "dal di dentro" di epoche storiche ricchissime di avvenimenti che si concretizzeranno in rivoluzioni sociali (chissà come finiranno l'avvocato e il plutocrate potentissimi, ma soprattutto i loro figli?)
*ci sarebbero anche altri due titoli a chiudere la trilogia, Varsavia (dove sembra di capire che si trasferirà Mirkin) e Mosca, che forse vale la pena leggere per chiudere il cerchio.
October 11, 2020
Great story and protagonist
August 13, 2023
L’auteur Schalom Asch décrit la bourgeoisie de la capitale russe Petersbourg dans les années 1910 en suivant la vie du jeune Zakhari, fils et petit-fils des constructeurs du transsibérien. Mais Petersbourg est aussi la ville où affluent tous ceux qui sont les victimes de la tyrannie du régime et qui veulent rencontrer l’avocat réputé Halperine pour les défendre. Zakhari travaille comme assistant de l’avocat et de ce fait est confronté aux deux milieux : d’une part celui de la bourgeoisie juive et d’autre part celui de la foule des miséreux venus plaider leur cause auprès de l’avocat et qui doivent se cacher car n’ayant pas de permis de séjour dans la capitale Zakhari sera tiraillé entre ces deux mondes tout au long du roman.
January 20, 2026
Il y a 2 façons de lire ce livre. La première est celle sans a priori d'un quelconque lecteur du 21e siècle. Dans ce cas, autant refermer l'ouvrage avant même d'avoir commencé, tant le style, le rythme, les personnages et les dialogues sont datés. La seconde consiste à partir du contexte littéraire et historique de l'ouvrage, avoir un peu une démarche d'historien en somme. Si Stefan Zweig en a écrit la préface, et tient Asch pour une référence de la littérature juive ashkénaze, c'est sans nul doute parce qu'il offre un regard important sur l'époque. Le style et le récit prennent alors sens : ils sont une fenêtre sur un monde et une littérature désormais disparus.
June 13, 2021
Un livre remarquable d’abord par son thème : l’identité juive dans la Russie de la fin de l’époque tsariste, et notamment la cassure entre les assimilationnistes presque intégrés dans la capitale russe et les populations très « séparatistes » du Yiddishland. Dans la forme, le livre s’inscrit dans la lignée des grands romans anglais du siècle précédent.
August 16, 2020
Bon. Ce n’est que le premier tome de la trilogie. Donc rien n’est dit encore. La révolution ne fait que couver. Pas encore totalement sous le charme du livre. On se perd un peu trop dans les histoires de famille pour l’instant.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews