Book Description
Two tales of love. "Betrothed" portrays a teacher, whose love for the sea and all that it holds leads him to the town of Jaffa.Though many pursue him, Rechnitz eschews romantic love for his studies until he can no longer resist. The second tale, "Edo and Enam," is set after World War II in Jerusalem and considers how love evolves throughout the course of a marriage.

The Wisconsin edition is not for sale in the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, or the traditional British Commonwealth (excluding Canada.) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A masterpiece
In 'The Betrothed" Agnon gives us a picture of the city of Jaffa in the turn of the century, and of the nascent Zionist enterprise. He tells a somewhat strange kind of love- story while giving us a sharp sense of arichly colored and slower world. His tale of the schoolteacher, plant biologist Rechnitz who is pursued by seven women , each of whom has a beauty of her own- while he remains faithful to his love,Susan Ehrlich, from his old world-is written with tremendous intelligence and subtletly.
Agnon is a writer whose grasp of Jewish religious literature is great, and who contains within his language Biblical, Mishnaic, Midrashic, hints and signs. While all of this does not translate to English Walter Lever does succeed in his translation in capturing the fundamental atmosphere and tone of Agnon's work.
There are so many beautiful and wise passages in this work that it is difficult to choose one to give as sample of the work's feeling.
But I choose one in which Rechnitz is described concentrating on his scientific work as a way of dealing with the debilitating illness which has cut off his fiancee from him, and taken from him the reward of his faithfulness.

" Meanwhile, Rechnitz turned back to his work. He was busy at his microscope, and happy, for sometimes small things give us great happiness, especially when they link together into something large. The humble sea plants with their tints of green, red, brown, and blue, which have neither taste nor scent, and are without any counterpart on land, were dearer to Rechnitz than all the trees, bushes and shrubs of the earth. Out of the strength of his love, and his capacity to take unqualified delight in the smallest of things, his own soul grew and perfected itself ever more. And with this wholeness of spirit came tranquility. Once again he surveyed , examined and tested , with an undistracted love, objects which he had set aside for many days, perhaps since the day when Susan Ehrlich came to Jaffa. How many days and weeks had these sea plants lain, floating in salt water within their olbong trays of clear glass,exuding their salt water like tears! But now that Rechnitz had returned and wiped their tears away, they looked up at him so lovingly that in their presence h forgot any other concern."

A truly beautiful work. ... Read more

Book Description
In the Heart of the Seas is a sophisticated fantasy that tells the story of a pilgrimage of a group of Hasidim to the Holy Land. During an early decade of the nineteenth century in Bucsacz, S.Y. Agnon's actual birthplace, a small group of pious townspeople decides to sell their property and belongings, put aside their business affairs, and make their way to the Holy Land to spend the remainder of their days in study and prayer.
The pilgrims are joined by a simple Jew by the name of Hananya, who carries all of his possessions in a kerchief and who has encountered many obstacles and privations in his longstanding efforts to reach Jerusalem. He not only completes their minyan but also drives one of the wagons and provides the practical know-how that enables the faithful to negotiate the long journey from Eastern Europe to Constantinople.
Along the way many Jewish settlements are encountered and described and many legends about the Holy Land are told. Hananya is late to the ship's departure from Constantinople to the Holy Land because he is busy reading the Agunah, and unaware of his absence, the faithful embark upon the tempest-tossed voyage without him. When they arrive in Jaffa, Hananya is there before them, having flown over the seas transported on his "magical" kerchief. Settled in Jerusalem, the members of the group experience a mixture of fates, and it is only Hananya who lives to a contented old age.

Named by Harper San Francisco one of "The 100 Best Spiritual Books of the Twentieth Century" and among Harold Bloom's selections for The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages.

The Wisconsin edition is not for sale in the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, or the traditional British Commonwealth (excluding Canada.)
... Read more

Book Description
"Betrothed" is a mystical love story by Israel's only Nobel Laureate, S.Y. Agnon.(He won the award in 1966.)This novella follows Jacob Rechnitz, a brilliant scholar who leaves the stuffiness of European academia for life among the early Zionists living in Palestine at the turn of the century.As in much of Agnon's fiction, the worlds of memory, illusion and reality blend.Jacob casually courts six girls, but his research of the sea (he is a marine biologist) is his only real love.Then his childhood sweetheart, Susan, and her father come to visit the area after a lengthy world tour.Susan reminds Jacob of their childhood vow of eternal fidelity. However, love appears to be halted as Susan develops a mysterious sleeping sickness and Jacob prepares for a university post in America. Finally, in a race on a moonlit beach where Jacob's six girlfriends compete for his affections, another figure -- Susan, asleep -- wins the competition and Jacob as well. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A flawlessly produced and narrated audiobook
The late S.Y. Agnon, Israel's Nobel Laureate and acknowledge master of modern Hebrew fiction, is the author of more than 24 novels, novellas, and short story collections, was a master storyteller who aptly and amply demonstrated the literary abilities of the Hebrew language. Betrothed (written in 1943) is set in Palestine, in 1909, where a gentle scholar who studies the sea encounters a beautiful girl in the grip of a mysterious illness. This engaging story was first translated into English by Walter Lever in 1966 and is now available as an unabridged, flawlessly produced and narrated audiobook which will splendidly introduce a whole new generation to a master craftsman of enduring literature.

If James Joyce were Jewish ...
Agnon is the James Joyce of Hebrew Literature. This book is relatively short and accessible. It serves as a great intro to his works. In a few brief passages, Agnon vividly re-creates Jaffa and Vienna of circa 1900. In the same way that Joyce adds references to all of western literature, Agnon brings in both western and Jewish literature. This short book is packed with references to ancient Greek literature, Hebrew bible, Talmud, medieval commentaries, 19th century German philosophy and more. Yet it is an engaging, dramatic story, full of romance, suspense and the supernatural. ... Read more

Book Description
The late Miriam Roshwald here examines the role of the nineteenth-century ghetto or shtetl through the eyes of three contemporaneous Jewish writers: Karl Emil Franzos (1848-1904), Sholom Aleichem (aka Sholom Rabinovitz, 1859-1916), and Shmuel Yosef Agnon (aka Samuel Josef Czaczkes, 1888-1970). ... Read more