Novel
The Brief Travels of Benjamin the Third
קיצור מסעות בנימין השלישי
Mendele Mocher Sforim · 1878
Synopsis
In Tuneyadevka, a wretched Jewish village that knows nothing of the world, Benjamin, a naive man of learning, feeds on travel accounts and legends. He dreams of finding the Red Jews, the lost tribes of Israel who are said to live beyond the Sambation, the river that rests on the Sabbath. He decides to leave, abandons his wife and draws along Senderl, who also leaves his own. The two companions set out and, from village to village, through Teterivke and then Glupsk, look for the way to those distant kingdoms.
Context
Abramovitsh later produced a Hebrew version of the book. It has been recognised as modelled on Cervantes: Benjamin and Senderl take up the knight and his squire, and Mendele, who presents himself as the editor of the narrative, relates it with constant irony. The satire targets an entire culture, that of a small town cut off from the real world, where books are mistaken for reality. The title presents itself as an abridgement, kitser, of the hero's travels.
Who it is for
A short picaresque and satirical novel in Yiddish; it can be read in French under the title Les Voyages de Benjamin III.
Prizes and reception
Britannica regards it as its author's masterpiece, and some see in it the greatest satire of Jewish life in exile.
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