The Jew

I have now finished the book, all 469 pages of it, noticed at reference 1 and reference 2. An interesting read, more because of the subject matter, Poland at the time of the 1863 insurrection, than for its literary merits - which last may well be more evident in the original Polish. An insurrection which the wikipedia entry says was marked by atrocities on both sides, atrocities which the present book rather skates over. Perhaps the novelist had to steer a middle course between the various conflicting interests, not least those of the Russian authorities, the censors in particular. But a middle course which still suggests that the Russian occupiers of Poland in the middle of the nineteenth century were a rough lot: greedy, corrupt and violent.

We get an introduction by Edmund Gosse, a literary and arty type who spent a good chunk of his life as a civil servant and who was a close friend of, albeit rather younger than, Thomas Hardy. Nothing about the translator, let alone a translator’s note.

The novel proper is framed by an opening visit to a pub in Sestri-Ponente, a small town just to the west of Genoa at the head of the Ligurian Sea, and a closing visit, involving much the same people, at the end. In between we have the journey of the hero, Jacob Hamon, to the Warsaw of the insurrection, a journey which includes his marriage to his childhood sweetheart, following her divorce from her rich but otherwise unsatisfactory husband. Jacob is a man of religious inclination who had become rich by a chance inheritance and who tries to steer a middle course between the various elements of Polish society, in particular between the religious (Jews) and the revolutionaries.

At one point a passing comparison is made between the plight of the Poles and that of the Irish, both troubled countries with lots of old-fashioned Catholics and with an oppressive occupying power. Another between the plight of the Jews in Poland, as compared with their so much better condition in Germany. And while the Poles hated the Russian occupiers, there is a link between the revolutionaries of Poland and those of Russia. Some space is given to the tensions between the overlapping components of Polish society - the nobles (who seem to be a fairly hopeless lot), the peasants, the townspeople, the educated and the Jews. Between those who collaborate with the Russian occupiers and those who do not. Between those who want to assimilate, those who hanker after Jerusalem and those who strive to preserve the tradition.

Along the way we get the idea that of the three occupying powers, the Russians were by far the worse, then the Prussians, then the Austrians. These last being corrupt and inefficient, but relatively benign.

A scatter of French words, with plenty of monsieurs, madames and mademoiselles. Perhaps the Poles of the time did like to introduce a scatter of French into their conversation - rather as the Russians of 'War and Peace' did.

A scatter of references to Jewish religious texts. For example, on page 387 we have 'Baba Mezzia, 107.a', which google translates to 'Baba Mez'ia 107a' and offers the text from the tractate of that name from the Babylonian Talmud, in which I cannot find the text 'Happy he who dies as he was born, pure and without stain' which is offered by the novelist, although there is stuff in that general vein, in a piece mainly agricultural in tone. And asking google for the text itself, I just get referred back to the book itself. So either the novelist has been a little careless with his references or the whole business is too complicated to be properly appreciated on a casual acquaintance. But one is left wondering at what must be the prodigious size of the google indexes.

Altogether an interesting read. Maybe next stop 'Count Brühl', prominent among the small number of offerings in English from Abebooks. A work of fiction about a real person, whom wikipedia says had Europe's largest collection of watches and military vests... also a vast collection of ceremonial wigs, hats and the largest collection of Meissen porcelain in the world'

By way of illustration, I offer a map of pre-partition Poland-Lithuania offered by wikipedia, a Poland which includes Byelorussia, Lithuania and a chunk of the western Ukraine. But not Silesia or Breslau (now Wrocław). Evidence of a troubled past.

PS: I now try the same search trick with a random phrase from yesterday's find, a book about Napoléon by one Arthur-Lévy. Found again, with the common trick seeming to be that they are both quite old and quite well-known books, both gobbled up into the maw of google books.

Reference 1: http://www.psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/jozef-ignacy-kraszewski.html.

Reference 2: http://www.psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/jacob-isaacksz-van-ruisdael.html.