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My First Two Thousand Years: The Autobiography of the Wandering Jew

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This is the story of Cartaphilus, the wandering Jew, who begins his life in the holy land of Jerusalem over two thousand years ago during the time of Jesus Christ. A Hebrew man turned Roman solider, childhood friends with Mary Magdalene and the beloved apostle John, Cartaphilus refuses to join his friends and follow this new and rebellious prophet. Although he loves Mary and John more than life itself, and despite their pleads to accept Jesus and his teachings, he remains steadfast in his convictions that Jesus is no more than a clever magi, a false prophet, jealous perhaps, that this man has taken away the two people he loves most in the world. Cartaphilus attends the trial of Jesus as Pontius Pilate hands the final judgement to the crowd, where the crowd unanimously call for the crucifixion of the "King of the Jews". As Jesus carries the cross to the Place of Skulls and falls for the third time, Cartaphilus calls out and mocks him. Jesus lifts his head, looks at Cartaphilus direct in the eyes, and utters:

"I will go, but thou shalt tarry until I return."

Thus begins this man's immortal journey through two thousand years of history, tirelessly searching, attempting to find the meaning of his existence, protesting constantly at his plight, escaping torture and death, witnessing hundreds of religions and great civilizations rise and crumble, though the central thread of his long existence remains constant - his search for the truth.

Most would agree that the Christian legend of Cartaphilus, the Wandering Jew, is a metaphor, some would go as far as to say, a cosmic symbol, of the plight of humankind. Cartaphilus asks the same questions we all ask at one time or another. He recognizes the absurdity and humour of our lives on earth - our suffering, constantly seeking happiness, our search for the divine, our confusion over life's many contradictions, the great love and the great evils that appear to live side by side. Is life merely an illusion, a sadistic trick played on us by some mischievous god? Does our existence abruptly end at death or do we continue on in some other form? As Cartaphilus moves through the centuries, he recognises people, friends and lovers that lived before in other guises, only to come back to him again. He asks, is existence merely circular, recurring again and again? These are profound questions that the cursed one, made to tarry the earth until Christ's return, attempts to answer throughout the ages.

Throughout Cartaphilus' journey, we meet great historical personages such as Marcus Aurelius, Nero, Attila the Hun, and Mohammed, Leonardo da Vinci, Spinoza, Peter the Great and many others. One becomes so immersed in this intriguing narrative that these historical figures truly come to life. In the end, however, does Cartaphilus finally make peace with Jesus?

The great German writer Thomas Mann, called this novel, "Audacious and magnificent." I would have to say that it is the most original novel, encompassing religion, philosophy, history, and psychology, et al, which has ever been written.

George Sylvester Viereck (1884-1962) was a German-born poet and novelist. Paul Eldridge (1888-1982) was a poet and authored a number of plays and essays. In My First Two Thousand Years: The Autobiography Of The Wandering Jew, Viereck and Eldridge collaborated to write an impressive, 512 page novel that purports to be the story personal story of Cartaphilius (alias Isaac Laquedem), a young man who was the "wandering jew" of ancient myth. An elegant and immortal young man, his "autobiography" provides us with portraits of Salome, Jesus, Mary Magdalen, Nero, Attila, Mohammed, Don Juan, Leonardo da Vinci, Pope Alexander, Rothschild, Spinoza, Einstein, George Bernard Shaw, Lenin, Mussolini, and other historical figures. All intertwined with fascinating social commentaries, philosophic observations, as well as history and science based episodes with a new perspective through which we can view them. My First Two Thousand Years is an original and enduring work of literary substance that a whole new generation of readers can now discover with enthusiasm and appreciation.

This book, along with its two companion novels (Salome: My First Two-Thousand Years of Love and The Invincible Adam) is most certainly my favorite work of literature. I have read a LOT of books, so this is quite a compliment.

It's been 20 years since I last read this book, and I've read literally hundreds of books since, but this book has stayed with me, and I am very glad to have found it again. This is one of those books that, when you loan it out, it NEVER comes back. It's history, science fiction, mythology, philosophy and religious thought all rolled into one wonderful read.

This is my first visit to Amazon.Com - I thought I would see just how good its database is by checking for one of my all time favorite books... one which I thought was out of print. Much to my delight, My First Two Thousand Years has been reprinted! My copy is one obtained about 33 years ago at a used book sale... the publication date on my copy is 1928. This book is 70 years old, but the story is as fresh as if it had just been written. I believe I will re-read it now.

I recommend this book as a historical adventure. Men and women both will enjoy this - I know because after I first read it many years ago I got my girlfriend (now my wife) to read it and she was as fascinated by the story as I was.

Viereck, later a propagandist in the Nazi Regime, corresponded with Albert Einstein, incorporating the nature of relativity to the story of mankind, using the extra-scriptural legendary characters, the Wandering Jew (Isaac Lakedam) searching the earth for his female counterpart, the Wandering Jewess (Salome) who is similarly cursed to dance forever, for having asked for the head of John the Baptist to be served upon a silver platter. The specific expression of their version as a novel makes for enlightening and fascinating reading on the nature of historical events through the past two milleniums. Please enjoy watching the movie!

THE WANDERING JEW AND WANDERING JEWESS?
AHASVER CD-ROM ISBN 1895507901 (SALE)! "THE JEW" (I-IIII):
"...Audacious and magnificent." "The book is in both substance and method of the highest originality; it is both fascinating and brilliant; the historic pageant is unrolled with a colorfulness and clearness that astonish me. And I am delighted too by the play of implicit wit, the quaint malice of the innuendos, the symbolic pattern sustained throughout." "...fascinatingly interesting and instructive...very ingenious conception and treatment of the various psychological and philosophical themes...I am particularly impressed with your ingenious way of presenting the various phases of psycho-sexuality....A great work." "It is a remarkably interesting idea to present the pageant of the World as it unfolded before the eyes of the same man during two thousand years. Also, to keep him a young man instead of a doddering grey-beard. It is like reading a series of entrancing short stories with the added interest of logical sequence. Their erudition is amazing, and it is presented in a manner that lures one on-and-on, as well as inducing the pleasant belief that one is learning something really worthwhile. It is a big thing to have attempted, and as far as I have gone there is certainly nothing to cavil at." "The book is gorgeous in its epigram and cold satire. It is one of the most brilliant books of sophisticated World-wisdom ever written. It sums up the case of intelligence against life. Isaac Laquedem is the Ulysses of your brain." "`My First Two Thousand Years' looks to me like a big thing." "Instead of leaving the reader stimulated, this would-be entertaining and philosophic tome leaves you prostrated...quality-of-life, so difficult to define to any healthy piece of literature, is absent." "The story captures the reader's interest in the beginning, holding it enthralled through every short chapter to the very end of five hundred and one pages. This number is significant. It recalls those gentle tales of one thousand and one nights." "The halfpenny cynicism in which the authors revel is the type resulting from protracted adolescence. The greatest mystery of it all is that the authors if not their book comes recommended, however guardedly, by no less than Sigmund Freud, George Bernard Shaw, and Havelock Ellis." "`My First Two Thousand Years' has occasional defects, but, out-weighing these, are pages of beauty, clearly seen and transcribed; and chapters of adroit and smiling satire...throughout there persists the restless reach of man toward a forever elusive finality." "This is in may respects and astonishing book, and in all respects one that deserves attention." "Cartaphilus's speculations and comprehensions about life, as without growing older, watching others grow old and idle; his amatory experiences, his judgments of great men of history, his increasing self-knoledge...all these give the book substance and intellectual stimulation, as well as very occasional brilliance. But in no major sense does the book triumph over its inherent difficulties. It is not history surveyed from high philosophical peaks, but history regarded by two intelligent minds. It is all human experience collected and annotated, but not interpreted with any profundity. So is its irony without depth, and its wit without freshness." You would think that anyone might, in two thousand years, grow weary of tryingto solve the riddle of life through sexual orgies, especially if, along about the middle of the fourth century of it, a Chinese adept has taught him two hundred and eighty secrets of love. But not Cartaphilus...undeniably an eenormous achievement." "...a work that must not be measured by ordinary standards....It will be read and thoroughly enjoyed by any lover of good fiction no less than by him who has a preferment for history and biography." "...As a work of creative imagination, Viereck and Eldridge have written a fascinatingly unique and alluring story. It is done with a spareness of words that sometimes approaches the beauty of the Greeks....In summing up the book...it is the story you remember." "...an unusually good story...some readers will detect a slight suspicion of Kraft-Ebbing; our respectable ancestors would have burned the book -- and perhaps the authors -- with a clear conscience. But a good many moderns will read it with enthusiasm." "...too colossal, too powerful, too broad in scope to be tarnished by the tired adjectives of reviewers....No detail is left untold; no intimacy is too delicate to go unrelated....A great work."

I read this book almost twenty years ago and have been trying to find it for the last ten! None of the books or movies on the wandering jew even begin to describe the pain and sufferring he must feel! The Historical line is near perfection seconded only by Forrest Gump for having the Knack of being were it's happening, and Salome is the lady of all mens dreams! Definetly a mans mans book!!!!!!

this controversial mixture of fantasy and history takes the reader on a roller coaster ride of never ending inventiveness.

I first read this book about 45years ago, and wanted to read again to see if I enjoyed it as much as I remembered. Yes!
The text is a little different to recently written books, but I still found the story line to be as interesting as the first time.
It is a version of the legend of the Wandering Jew (Cartaphilus)... the man who was said to have doubted Jesus, (not Thomas) on his journey to the cross. He was told 'that he would tarry until Jesus' return'.
This is the story from that day until about the late 1920's, when the book was written.
Cartaphilus, meets up with some famous people throughout history, and a description of the changing years. Also the personal side, his sadness and loneliness of having to outlive the loves in his life.
Interesting, and thought provoking. Taken that it was co-written in the twenties by Viereck and Eldridge.