The Labyrinth of Exile: A Life of Theodor Herzl [Hardcover]

Ernst Pawel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 21, 1989

Theodor Herzl was the founder of modern Zionism and therefore probably the most important contemporary Jewish figure. His long overdue biography is produced by Ernst Pawel, the award-winning biographer of Kafka, The Nightmare of Reason.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Herzl (1860-1904), a Hungarian-born Viennese Jew, at age 35 transformed himself from journalist and dandified minor playwright to leader of the secular Zionist movement by dint of willpower and charisma. He emerges in Pawel's near psychobiography as a dictatorial, sexually repressed, cruelly misogynistic, arrogant fame-seeker who believed in his own legend and "channeled his self-destructive impulses into a self-transcending cause." Pawel ( The Nightmare of Reason ) shatters the icon of the bearded prophet with burning eyes; the figure that remains in this probing portrait is a great man, but not a likable one. Herzl, in this telling, rose above his elitist bias to create a democratic mass movement that spawned the nucleus of a future state. His "life of tragic grandeur which left much wreckage in its wake" is candidly re-created. Photos.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Pawel brings to his study of the first Jewish leader in modern times an intellectual energy and literary elegance that combine to make the book not only a masterpiece of its genre but an absorbing, indeed definitive, portrait of a prophet."--Alyn Brodsky, The Detroit News

"A spellbinding narrative...It is impossible to finish this book without feeling the exhilaration that comes from plumbing the depths of a powerful personality."--Jim Miller, Newsweek

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 564 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st edition (November 21, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374182566
• ISBN-13: 978-0374182564
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,406,601 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting study of Zionism and its first leader, February 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Labyrinth of Exile: A Life of Theodor Herzl (Paperback)

Pawel attempts and largely succeeds at placing Herzl and the Zionist movement in its historical and cultural setting. He thoroughly and without sentiment unveils the conflicts and crises that drove Herzl to become the international leader of Zionism. The rise of Jewish nationalist sentiment and the personalities involved in its emergence are well presented. I especially enjoyed the depiction of the Vienna of Herzl's era. I recommend it for readers with an interest in the origins of the Zionist movement and its uniquely gifted leader, Theodor Herzl.