The Magician of Lublin (Masterplots II: World Fiction Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Isaac Bashevis Singer
- First Published: 1959
- Type of Work: Moral picaresque
- Time of Work: Around 1900
- Setting: Lublin, Piask, and Warsaw
- Principal Characters: Yasha Mazur, Esther, Magda Zbarski, Zeftel Lekach, Emilia Chrabotzky
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Picaresque fiction
- Subjects: Magic or magicians, Prisons, Love or romance, Nineteenth century, Guilt, Robbery or robbers, Adultery, Faith, Poland or Polish people, Atonement
- Locales: Warsaw, Poland, Lublin, Poland
The Novel
As the novel begins, Yasha Mazur, a magician “religious and heretical, good and evil, false and sincere,” has just returned from a series of performances in the country; he has come home to spend the holidays with his wife, Esther. One evening while he is out walking, he has a vision of Emilia Chrabotzky, his mistress in Warsaw. The next morning, Pentecost, Yasha sleeps late, and when Esther returns from synagogue, he takes her to bed.
The holiday over, Yasha readies his horses and wagon and leaves for Warsaw. On the way, he stops outside Piask to...
[The entire page is 1583 words long]
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