The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer [Paperback]

Isaac Bashevis Singer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1983

The forty-seven stories in this collection, selected by Singer himself out of nearly one hundred and fifty, range from the publication of his now-classic first collection, Gimpel the Fool, in 1957, until 1981. They include supernatural tales, slices of life from Warsaw and the shtetls of Eastern Europe, and stories of the Jews displaced from that world to the New World, from the East Side of New York to California and Miami.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Sparkling and triumphant, Isaac Bashevis Singer's stories are filled with wonder, gratitude, humor, irony and a wry eroticism that manages to exalt the pleasures of the flesh and the soul at the same time."—Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post Book World

"There are whole fistfuls of masterpieces in this one volume: a cornucopia of invention . . . When all is said and done, [it] is an American master's 'Book of Creation.'"—Cynthia Ozick, The New York Times Book Review

Language Notes

Text: English, Yiddish (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 624 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition edition (August 1, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374517886
• ISBN-13: 978-0374517885
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,677 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #4 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > European

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Greatest Short Story Writer of the Century?, August 14, 2000

By 

R. W. Rasband (Heber City, UT) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer (Paperback)

I hesitate to even comment on this book for fear of not doing it justice. It's a collection of the best short stories of the Nobel Prize-winning writer Isaac Bashevis Singer. He definitely is *not* a minimalist in today's fashionable style. You will find fabulous riches here: satire, history, horror, fantasy, faith, despair, wonders. It starts with "Gimpel the Fool" of course; it's all of Singer in a nutshell. Is this poor wanderer of eastern Europe mad, or does he really see the world beyond this one? His kindness and faith mark him as an eternal victim--by this world's standards he is an idiot and easy mark But is he the real human being and his tormentors really just animals? And what sort of God would let it come to that? I love this book with all my heart and fervently advise you to get ahold of it. It might change your life.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning, profoundly human stories, July 10, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer (Paperback)

For anyone not familiar with Singer's work, this provides something of an intense, but deeply engaging, introduction. Although the setting is often the closed world of Poland's rural Jewish communities before the Nazi invasion, these stories are replete with the most profound insights about human nature that are universally applicable. Told with dazzling skill, and using a wonderful sense of realistic detail (including beautiful descriptions of the natural world), these stories are rich, full and deeply moving. Within the small communities Singer uses as his settings, he explores faith, despair, love, longing, and above all else, loneliness, in ways that are as moving as they are brilliant. Like Tolstoy, Singer is able to explore these profound themes without the slightest pretension and without writing "philosophical" prose. Indeed, reading them is like listening to a brilliant oral story teller who effortlessly draws you into his tale--but then you realize you are, in fact, reading an extraordinarily sophisticated text. This is some of the finest writing I've read in many years and is one of those books I would take with me to that desert island everyone talks about.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Here is the table of contents, March 30, 2009

By 

Pascal Tiscali - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer (Paperback)

This book is published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The publisher's website states that this book is a SELECTION, not a complete collection: "The forty-seven stories in this collection, selected by Singer himself out of nearly one hundred and fifty, range from the publication of his now-classic first collection, Gimpel the Fool, in 1957, until 1981. They include supernatural tales, slices of life from Warsaw and the shtetls of Eastern Europe, and stories of the Jews displaced from that world to the New World, from the East Side of New York to California and Miami."

CONTENTS:

Gimpel the Fool
The Gentleman from Cracow
Joy
The Little Shoemakers
The Unseen
The Spinoza of Market Street
The Destruction of Kreshev
Taibele and her Demon
Alone
Yentl the Yeshiva Boy
Zeidlus the Pope
The Last Demon
Short Friday
The Séance
The Slaughterer
The Dead Fiddler
Henne Fire
The Letter Writer
A Friend of Kafka
The Cafeteria
The Joke
Powers
Something Is There
A Crown of Feathers
A Day in Coney Island
The Cabalist of East Broadway
A Quotation from Klopstock
A Dance and a Hop
Grandfather and Grandson
Old Love
The Admirer
The Yearning Heifer
A Tale of Two Sisters
Three Encounters
Passions
Brother Beetle
The Betrayer of Israel
The Psychic Journey
The Manuscript
The Power of Darkness
The Bus
A Night in the Poorhouse
Escape from Civilization
Vanvild Kava
The Reencounter
Neighbors
Moon and Madness