The Dybbuk: A Play in Four Acts

By S. Ansky, Gilbert W. (Intoduction) Ansky, S. (Author); Alsberg, Henry G. and Katzin, Winifred (Translator); Ga, Gilbert W. (Intoduction) Ansky, S. (Author); Alsberg, Henry G. and Katzin, Winifred (Translator); Ga

Book Overview

The Dybbuk, regarded as the classic drama of the Yiddish stage, has long frightened yet fascinated audiences throughout the world. Based on Jewish folklore, its dark implications of mysterious, other-worldly forces at work in a quaint and simple village make for gripping, suspenseful theater. To the Chassidic Jews of eastern Europe, a dybbuk was not a legend or a myth; rather it remained a constant and portentous possibility. During that age of pervasive mysticism, when rabbis became miracle workers and the sinister arts of the Kabbala were fearsomely invoked, it was never doubted that a discontented spirit from the dead could cross the barrier between the "real" and the "other" worlds to enter a living human body. The Dybbuk is a masterful play, full of deep-rooted obsessions and dramatic suspense, fascinating for the glimpse it provides of the rich, poetic, and often tragic culture of the Chassidim. In this classic translation by Henry Alsberg and Winifred Katzin, the authentic cadences of the original Yiddish are deftly preserved.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0871402629
• ISBN13: 9780871402622
• Release Date: March 1972
• Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
• Length: 148 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Description incorrect

The description is incorrect. The book I ordered did not have Yiddish and English on facing pages. It was all in English translated by S. Morris Engel.