Het geheim van Rakitne
by Dovid Bergelson
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Opgang, a novella published in 1920, is set against the background of Jewish life in Russia and Ukraine during the turbulent period leading up to the October Revolution of 1917, a period characterized by the rise of secularism, the rejection of old traditions, the alienation of intellectuals, and the attempt of different generations to find a place for themselves inside and out of the shtetl. The novella centers on the mystery of the suicide of a young pharmacist in Rakitne, a provincial show more town. Did his death have anything to do with the two women who loved him? Was it the result of despair or an act of protest? And if protest, against what? His old friend seeks answers but finds none. The prose is immaculately crafted, the narrative indirect, and the mood poignant, dark, and disquieting. show lessTags
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37+ Works 188 Members
One of the masters of modern Yiddish prose, David Bergelson was born in Okhrimova, Ukraine, in 1884. His works deal with the decline of the small-town Ukrainian Jewish shtetl before and during the Russian Revolution. Bergelson left Soviet Russia for Western Europe in 1921, returning there in 1934. On August 12, 1952, along with 23 other notable show more Soviet Jewish personalities, Bergelson was executed in Moscow. Although some of his shorter works have appeared in anthologies of Yiddish fiction in English translation, only one of his longer novels has been translated. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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- Genre
- Fiction and Literature
- DDC/MDS
- 839.133 — Literature & rhetoric German & related literatures Other Germanic literatures Yiddish literature Fiction 1860-1945
- LCC
- PJ5129 .B45 .O6 — Language and Literature Oriental languages and literatures Oriental philology and literature Hebrew Other languages used by Jews Yiddish
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- Dutch, English, Yiddish
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- 3
