Jewish Life: Tales from Nineteenth-Century Europe

by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Virginia L. Lewis (Translator)

This work, originally published in Mannheim in 1891, is a collection of twenty-six stories illustrating various aspects of Jewish life and culture in Europe prior to the twentieth century. Each story takes place in a different country, ranging from England to Turkey, and develops an isolated topic or theme from Jewish life, such as its holidays, cabalism, the Chasidic movement, fanaticism, secularism, etc., in a sometimes humorous, sometimes dramatic, and often sentimental fashion. While the endings are always happy, the level of historic realism in the stories is high. "Jewish Life" offers a richly detailed portrait of Jewish customs and culture prior to the deplorably successful attempt to destroy them during the Holocaust.

Genres: 19th Century, Fiction

212 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1888

About the author

Austrian writer and journalist, who gained renown for his romantic stories of Galician life. The term masochism is derived from his name.
During his lifetime, Sacher-Masoch was well known as a man of letters, a utopian thinker who espoused socialist and humanist ideals in his fiction and non-fiction. Most of his works remain untranslated into English. The novel Venus in Furs is his only book commonly available in English.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_...

Reviews

[Eric K. · Rating 2 out of 5]

The really curious thing about Sacher-Masoch was that he hated that Kraft-Ebbing coined the term "masochism" after him, feeling it destroyed his legacy as a writer. He wanted to be remembered for his political goals: Principally, his ceaseless campaigning against anti-Semitism, which he considered a toxic aspect of the German character with catastrophic consequences if unaddressed.

REVIEW: Interesting in Sacher-Masoch's enthusiastic philo-Semitism and his historical goal of preserving the memory of Jewish peasant life, but not really an interesting read. He really knew his Jews well though, his use of Jewish words and understanding of customs matches that of any Jewish writer.

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating and well-observed study of Jewish life & culture, through the medium of the short story. Sacher-Masoch knew his local Jewish community well, and the tone of these stories is warm & affectionate, and never patronising.

Their settings range widely,and some are better than others, but only a view show the preoccupations that have made his name famous.