Stories and Pictures. By Isaac Lobb Perez. Translated by Helena
Frank. (Bickers. Gs.)—This is a novelty, or nearly a novelty, in English literature,—a translation from the Yiddish. The stories are eminently characteristic ; but an English reader is pretty certain to feel a difficulty in understanding them. They presuppose conditions of life and thought which are quite strange to him. On the very first page, for instance, he will find : " You know the Lithuanian Jews—they rather despise books of devotion, but stuff themselves with . the Talmud and the codes." Ho knows, or ought to know, about the ,Talmud; but what are the " codes" ? Thus in " Married " we read : " Mother had at least Parnossehs." What does that mean ? And where there is no special difficulty there is a want of clearness. Of all things in the world that the reader of stories hates, there is nothing worse than obscurity. Still, any one who will be patient and painstaking will find much that is strangely pathetic in this volume.
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