Passions, and Other Stories (English and Yiddish Edition)

By Isaac Bashevis Singer

Book Overview

In this masterly collection of stories, Isaac Bashevis Singer once again weaves bewitching fables from seemingly ordinary lives, showing us with subtlety and compassion humanity at its most mundane... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374229937
• ISBN13: 9780374229931
• Release Date: January 1975
• Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux
• Length: 312 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.

Customer Reviews

My favorite author; my favorite book . . .

Isaac Singer is a genius. You wonder what does a Yiddish collection of short stories lose in the translation? These are wonderful stories with vivid characterizations, lush imagery, and plots rich with emotion and imagination. My favorite is Passions: a meditation on how man becomes obsessed with something--to the extent of transforming one's life--anything can become a passion. I've read this collection probably four times over the years, and the mark of a great story is how rich and complex it remains upon a second or third reading.

From the master of the short story

If I was stranded on a deserted island and somehow was given the choice of three books that I could have with me, I think I would pick the Bible, "The Complete Plays of Shakespeare" and "The Collected Short Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer". This collection is an excellent example of the quality and diversity of Singer's talent. There are stories from the present and from the past all containing marvelous characters that amuze, intrigue, and/or mystify the reader. Among the best are "The Admirer", "Sabbath in Portugal", "Three Encounters", "The Adventure", and "Passios". "The Admirer" is a tale about a meeting with a fan of his that turns into a comical nightmare. "Sabbath in Portugal" is a tale of a lonely visit to an alien country where the author encounters a faith that survived the inquisition and an encounter with someone he thought was lost forever. "Three Encounters" is the tale of a young man's innocent suggestion to a young bride and the sucessive corruption that results. "The Adventure" tells of an unusual request and the challenge of if and how to respond. Finally, "Passions" tells of the ability of a simple man to overcome the impossible with the proper amount of focussed passion. All the stories are worth reading. The world's greatest short story writer has produced another example of why he is so revered.