A Simple Story (Masterplots II: World Fiction Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Shmuel Yosef Czaczkes
- First Published: 1935
- Type of Work: Psychological parable
- Time of Work: The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
- Setting: Szybusz, Poland and Galicia
- Principal Characters: The Narrator, Hirshl Hurvitz, Blume Nacht, Mina Ziemlich, Baruch Meir Hurvitz, Tsirl Hurvitz, Gedalia Ziemlich, Bertha Ziemlich, Dr. Langsam, Yona Toyber, Akavia and Tirza Mazal
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Parable
- Subjects: Self-discovery, Tradition, Love or romance, Marriage, Mental illness, Jews or Jewish life, Eastern Europe or eastern Europeans, Poland or Polish people
- Locales: Poland, Galicia
The Novel
Using an obtrusive narrator, a native of Galicia wise and tolerant concerning the foibles of men and women in love, Shmuel Yosef Agnon narrates a “simple” tale that grows ever more complex and meaningful. He begins with the fortunes of Blume Nacht, an attractive, clever, and industrious young woman who, as a penniless orphan, arrives at her cousin’s home at Szybusz, a Jewish shtetl (village) in southern Poland. Baruch Meir Hurvitz and his wife, Tsirl, decide that she might well serve as a maid in the household to earn her modest keep, and they agree to...
[The entire page is 1796 words long]
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