The Slave (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Isaac Bashevis Singer
- First Published: 1961
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Historical
- Time of Work: The mid- and late seventeenth century
- Setting: Poland and Palestine
- Genres: Long fiction, Historical fiction
- Subjects: Tradition, Love or romance, Slavery or slaves, Marriage, Prejudices or antipathies, Religion, Jews or Jewish life, Seventeenth century, Death or dying, Childbirth, Miracles, Poland or Polish people, Jews and Gentiles, Middle East, Peasantry or peasants
- Locales: Palestine, Poland
Characters Discussed
Jacob, a devout, scholarly Jew, twenty- nine years old as the novel opens. A survivor of a massacre, he is sold as a slave to Polish peasant Jan Bzik, who uses him as a cowherd. He is tall, with brown hair and blue eyes, and he is descended from rabbis. He resists the temptation to commit adultery with Wanda, Jan’s daughter, in a mountain village in which diseased sexuality is rampant, but he finally succumbs and is tormented by shame and desire. After five years, Jacob is ransomed by fellow Jews. Their account of Cossack atrocities in his village and of...
[The entire page is 914 words long]
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