The Gentleman from Cracow (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Isaac Bashevis Singer
- First Published: 1957
- Type of Plot: Allegory
- Time of Work: Unspecified
- Setting: Frampol, a fictitious village near Cracow, Poland
- Principal Characters: The gentleman from Cracow, Hodle, Rabbi Ozer
- Genres: Short fiction, Allegory
- Subjects: Tradition, Supernatural, Doctors, Poverty or poor people, Jews or Jewish life, Storms, Legends, Ethics, Miracles, Disasters, Natural disasters, Devils or demons, Generation gap, Talmud, Peasantry or peasants, Insects, Droughts, Satan or Satanism, Grasshoppers
- Locales: Cracow, Poland
The Story
Isaac Bashevis Singer develops his narrative carefully in five parts. Part 1 introduces the fictitious little Polish village of Frampol, whose peasants are poor and whose Jewish villagers struggle against extreme impoverishment. Frampol's only asset is its children: boys who grow tall and strong and girls who bloom handsomely. Suddenly the whole area is stricken by a devastating drought that ends in a climactic hailstorm accompanied by supernatural events: “Locusts huge as birds came in the wake of the storm; human voices were said to issue from their...
[The entire page is 1423 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
See Also
