Reuben Sachs: A Sketch

By Amy Levy

Book Overview

Oscar Wilde wrote of this novel, "Its directness, its uncompromising truths, its depth of feeling, and above all, its absence of any single superfluous word, make Reuben Sachs, in some sort, a classic." Reuben Sachs, the story of an extended Anglo-Jewish family in London, focuses on the relationship between two cousins, Reuben Sachs and Judith Quixano, and the tensions between their Jewish identities and English society. The novel's complex and sometimes satirical portrait of Anglo-Jewish life, which was in part a reaction to George Eliot's romanticized view of Victorian Jews in Daniel Deronda, caused controversy on its first publication. This Broadview edition prints for the first time since its initial publication in The Jewish ChronicleLevy's essay "The Jew in Fiction." Other appendices include George Eliot's essay on anti-Jewish sentiment in Victorian England and a chapter from Israel Zangwill's novel The Children of the Ghetto. Also included is a map of Levy's London with landmarks from her biography and from the "Jewish geography" of Reuben Sachs.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1551115654
• ISBN13: 9781551115658
• Release Date: March 2006
• Publisher: Broadview Press Inc
• Length: 250 Pages
• Weight: 0.71 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

A strange and fascinating book

When you read nineteenth-century fiction, you sometimes encounter prose that's not politically correct. If you love the period, you put up with it. In this case, I decided to overlook the stereotypes and enjoy the story. The story is simple but compelling. Reuben Sachs and Judith Quixano (both Jewish) love each other deeply, but he's determined to rise in politics. Judith has no money to speak of, and no social status. She can't further his ambition. The portrayal of their passion, and of Judith's strength of character in particular, is quite poignant. There's a message here for everyone about the way life unfolds, and what really matters in the end. That's the good news. The bad news is that author Amy Levy, although herself Jewish, caricatures Jewish society and shows contempt for the "tribal foibles" of Jews. In the introduction, the editor tries to explain away Levy's prejudice against her own people - but the argument is pretty convoluted. To me it seems more likely that Levy's personal issues embittered her; she committed suicide at the age of 27. The Victorian Anglo-Jewish press, not surprisingly, decried Reuben Sachs. Yet Oscar Wilde considered it a classic. Who's right? Probably Oscar Wilde, but you be the judge.