Reviews

“This book is an important revision to modern Hebrew literary history, demonstrating how the beginnings of a viable prose style go back to the early nineteenth century and translation played a crucial role.”—Robert Alter, University of California, Berkeley

“Frieden cogently traces the path of making Hebrew a viable living language to a coterie of writers who preceded Mendele by half a century.”—Ruth Adler, professor of Jewish Studies and Comparative Literature at Baruch College

“The stakes, the scope, and the thrust of this book are exemplary, explaining how travel literature exemplifies the acts of cultural transfer that are so much at the heart of Jewish literary modernity. . . . Frieden lays out in admirably clear detail the linguistic pieces of the puzzle.”—Jeremy Dauber, director of the Institute of Israel and Jewish Studies at Columbia University