Novel
The Magician of Lublin
Der Kuntsnmakher fun Lublin
Isaac Bashevis Singer · 1959
Synopsis
Russian Poland, late nineteenth century. Yasha Mazur, of Lublin, acrobat, tightrope walker and hypnotist, opens every lock. He has a pious wife, Esther, who waits for him at home; an assistant, Magda, who follows him on the roads; a mistress in Piask, Zeftel; and in Warsaw Emilia, a Catholic widow, whom he would like to marry in Italy, which means converting and divorcing. For this he needs a sum he does not have.
Context
The text appeared as a serial in the Forverts in 1959, then in English in 1960, in a translation by Elaine Gottlieb and Joseph Singer with which the author collaborated; the Yiddish volume appeared only in 1971, in Tel Aviv. In his Nobel speech, he said of Yiddish that it was a language of exile, without land or borders, supported by no government, and that has no words for weapons. Menahem Golan made a film of it in 1979, with Alan Arkin.
Who it is for
A novel of about two hundred and fifty pages, centred on a single hero. The French translation, by Gisèle Bernier, was made from the English, like the Spanish one.
Prizes and reception
Favourably received by American critics on publication, even before the Yiddish original had appeared in book form.
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