Israel Zangwill: A Study PDF
Preview Israel Zangwill: A Study
ISRAEL ZANGWILL A Study by MAURICE WOHLGELERNTER New York and London 1964 Columbia University Press Maurice Wohlgelernter is Assistant Professor of English at Yeshiva University and Rabbi of the Inwood Jewish Center, New York City. Copyright © 1964 Columbia University Press Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 64-20129 Manuiactured in the United States of America To Esther . . . for every reason Truth is two opposites. BLAISE PASCAL, Pensées How often have I passed over High Field and seen the opulent valley —tilth and pasture and ancient country seats—stretching before me like a great poem . .. a true English home, the beautiful country in which my lot has been cast, with its many lovable customs and simple, kindly people. I can never forget that I am one of the Children of the Ghetto, ZANGWILL Do I really contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself. WALT WHITMAN, "Song of Myself' Introductory Note It is the mark of an educated man to look for precision in each class of things just so far as the nature of the subject admits, ARISTOTLE, Nicomachean Ethics writing his own obituary, said: "Though the ISRAEL ZANGWILL, world in which we live and move and have our banal being is assuredly a spiritual cosmos, it offers no ascertainable guaranty that the individual life shares its eternity." In one sense his death on August 1, 1926, proved his assertion. Zangwill had entered oblivion. In the three decades or so since his death no critical study has been made of Zangwill's works, despite the fact that he once "awoke all England to applause." The recent biography of Zan- gwill by his friend Joseph Leftwich, though long on anecdote and reminiscences, is short on analysis. In fact, the anonymous re- viewer for the Times Literary Supplement even refused to consider it an adequate biography, asserting that "while Mr. Leftwich's work is a delightful essay (or rather series of essays, some of them repetitive) about various aspects of Zangwill's life and the persons with whom he was in contact (and many with whom he was not), it is hardly a biography: and the reader who is ignorant at the Vili INTRODUCTORY NOTE outset of the scope of the subject's activities will be dazzled rather than informed by the time he finishes the volume." It is certain that Zangwill deserves serious study when we recall that in the generation of famous writers including Shaw, Chester- ton, and Belloc, he was considered their equal. And if today we are somewhat less sure of him, enough of value still remains in his works to warrant judicious review. To be sure, one must inevitably conclude that Zangwill is to be grouped with the lesser literary figures of his age; he is no Joyce or Yeats or Hopkins. But the literary world, we know, is not inhabited by giants only; men of smaller stature also walk there. Some of these men, also worth knowing, must be given attention. Joseph Leftwich reaches a similar conclusion. Reviewing Zan- gwill's life, he closes his book with this comment: Recently I sat with several writers in a public discussion on certain aspects of literature, and Zangwill's name came up. One of my colleagues said that Zangwill is no Shakespeare nor Dostoevsky nor James Joyce. Nor is he, I agree, Milton or Goethe, Tolstoy or Cervantes, Homer or the writer of the Book of Job. I have never understood this passion for having the world peopled only by giants. It is as though no mountain could command respect unless it towers to the height of Everest or at least Mont Blanc. I have a very healthy respect for the much smaller mountains of Derby Peak, and I see no reason to despise the Surrey Downs. The world would be poorer without the lesser hills. If Zangwill is no Everest and no Mont Blanc, he reaches never- theless a very impressive height, and is worth an ascent. There is wonderful country to be viewed. We meet people in his country who are worth knowing. This book, then, is not a "life and works" but rather an attempt to understand Zangwill's "wonderful country" and its "peculiar people," as they appear in his books. More specifically, I have undertaken to show Zangwill's thought in all its complexity and to relate it to the historical and intellectual events of his time, placing it specifically in the stream of English literature. It should not be overlooked that it also has narrow connections with Hebrew and Yiddish literature, rightfully the subject of a special study. Whatever biographical material I have used is incidental to my
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