Reuben Sachs [Original - Unabridged - Classicals - Best of all time]

by Amy Levy

Oscar Wilde wrote of this novel, "Its directness, its uncompromising truths, its depth of feeling, and above all, its absence of any single superfluous word, make Reuben Sachs, in some sort, a classic." Reuben Sachs, the story of an extended Anglo-Jewish family in London, focuses on the relationship between two cousins, Reuben Sachs and Judith Quixano, and the tensions between their Jewish identities and English society. The novel's complex and sometimes satirical portrait of Anglo-Jewish life, which was in part a reaction to George Eliot's romanticized view of Victorian Jews in Daniel Deronda, caused controversy on its first publication.

This Broadview edition prints for the first time since its initial publication in The Jewish Chronicle Levy's essay "The Jew in Fiction." Other appendices include George Eliot's essay on anti-Jewish sentiment in Victorian England and a chapter from Israel Zangwill's novel The Children of the Ghetto. Also included is a map of Levy's London with landmarks from her biography and from the "Jewish geography" of Reuben Sachs.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Victorian, Jewish, 19th Century, British Literature, Historical Fiction

Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1888

About the author

Levy was born in Clapham, London, the second daughter of Lewis Levy and Isobel Levin. Her Jewish family was mildly observant, but as an adult Levy no longer practised Judaism; she continued to identify with the Jews as a people.

She was educated at Brighton High School, Brighton, and studied at Newnham College, Cambridge; she was the first Jewish student at Newnham, when she arrived in 1879, but left after four terms.

Her circle of friends included Clementina Black, Dollie Radford, Eleanor Marx (daughter of Karl Marx), and Olive Schreiner. Levy wrote stories, essays, and poems for periodicals, some popular and others literary. Her writing career began early; her poem "Ida Grey" appearing in the journal the Pelican when she was only fourteen. The stories "Cohen of Trinity" and "Wise in Their Generation," both published in Oscar Wilde's magazine "Women's World," are among her best. Her second novel Reuben Sachs (1888) was concerned with Jewish identity and mores in the England of her time (and was consequently controversial); Her first novel Romance of a Shop (1888) depicts four sisters who experience the pleasures and hardships of running a business in London during the 1880s. Other writings as well, including the daring Ballad of Religion and Marriage, reveal feminist concerns. Xantippe and Other Verses (1881) includes a poem in the voice of Socrates's wife; the volume A Minor Poet and Other Verse (1884) has dramatic monologues too, as well as lyric poems. In 1886, Levy began writing a series of essays on Jewish culture and literature for the Jewish Chronicle, including The Ghetto at Florence, The Jew in Fiction, Jewish Humour and Jewish Children. Her final book of poems, A London Plane-Tree (1889), contains lyrics that are among the first to show the influence of French symbolism.

Traveling in Europe, she met Vernon Lee in Florence in 1886, and it has been said that she fell in love with her. Vernon Lee (Violet Paget), the fiction writer and literary theorist, was six years older, and inspired the poem To Vernon Lee.

Despite many friends and an active literary life, Levy had suffered from episodes of major depression from an early age which, together with her growing deafness, led her to commit suicide on September 10, 1889, at the age of twenty-seven, by inhaling carbon monoxide. Oscar Wilde wrote an obituary for her in Women's World in which he praised her gifts.
-Wikipedia

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reuben Sachs, published in 1888, is a short novel about a well to do Jewish family and the society around them. When I came across this novel I thought it sounded interesting and different, a novel about a Jewish family and some friends living in London during the 1880s. Well, it was interesting but very different from what I expected. It's a curious period piece that portrays in negative stereotypes every Jew in the novel. I was not expecting that! The narrator refers generally to all Jews as “the ill-made sons and daughters of Shem. " She also portrays the Jews as "overly fond of material gain and conspicuous consumption."

The title character, Reuben Sachs, around whose ill-fated desire for Judith the plot pivots, is not only unimpressive in appearance but debilitated in body and mind. He has a weak heart, and we first meet him in the wake of a nervous breakdown. As a doctor tells him, “More than half my nervous patients are recruited from the ranks of Jews."

Judith, Reuben's poor love interest is, seemingly rejected due to her lack of wealth. Saddened by Reuben's engagement to another woman and her need to marry a man she does not love, Judith muses, “Material advantage.....things that you could see and touch and talk about; these were the only things which really mattered.”

While reading this book I felt shocked by the gross caricatures of Jews by a Jewish author so I started Googling about Levy and this novel and learned a lot about both. There were differences of opinion about whether the negative stereotypes are Levy's own views. Upon publication of this novel, Levy was accused of hatred of her own community. “She apparently delights in the task of persuading the general public,” wrote the reviewer for Jewish World, “that her own kith and kin are the most hideous types of vulgarity.”

Levy who was only 26 when she wrote this novel. She had a history of depression and other losses around the time she wrote this novel as well as after it's publication. Levy was slowly going deaf and was suffering from the end of a love affair with the writer Vernon Lee. She was also preoccupied with the idea that she was unattractive. Some of her previously unpublished work was signed U.G.L.Y. She was also depressed about the death of her beloved younger brother Alfred, who died at age 24 of uncertain causes. Levy committed suicide one year after the publication of this novel. It's quite possible that Levy's worldview and her novel were affected by her depression.

On the other hand, this novel is viewed as satire of gentile prejudices. Her biographer Linda Hunt Beckman has suggested that "Levy was deliberately mimicking the descriptions of Jews found in the novels of Anthony Trollope." Another author, George Eliot is critiqued by the characters in Reuben Sachs. Levy’s story focuses on an extended Jewish family who, living in bourgeois London splendor, overvalue success and prosperity while neglecting their spiritual and intellectual heritage. As such, they are a deliberate counterpoint to Eliot’s virtuous and idealized Jews. “I think,” says one character of a dinner guest of a new convert who criticized them, “that he was shocked at finding us so little like the people in Daniel Deronda.” Replies another: “Did he expect to find our boxes in the hall, ready packed and labeled Palestine?” (as in a scene in Daniel Deronda). Adds another character, I have always been touched,' said Leo, 'at the immense good faith with which George Eliot carried out that elaborate misconception of hers."

I can't say that I enjoyed reading this novel, but it was an interesting experience. The one character with whom I felt engaged was Judith, the jilted lover. It was difficult to feel much for the other characters, including Daniel, because the first half of the novel is used only for introducing all the characters and the beginning of the plot, whether Judith and Reuben will marry or not. The second half resolves the plot. We hear this through the narrator and through Judith's voice, allowing for the reader to feel for Judith and her plight.

I listened to a Librivox recording. The narration was adequate.

[Alwynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reuben Sachs centres on an upper-middle class, Jewish family in late nineteenth-century London. Its slender plot hinges on the barely-suppressed attraction between Reuben Sachs and Judith Quixano. Reuben’s his mother’s pride, well-educated, ambitious, he’s expected to make a name for himself and marry accordingly; while Judith has a nobler lineage but no money. But it’s rapidly clear that Reuben Sachs isn’t a standard romance between star-crossed lovers, if anything Reuben and Judith’s relationship is a device, a catalyst enabling a broader examination of their strand of urban Jewish society.

Anti-Semitism in late nineteenth-century England was rife and rising, further fuelled by virulent prejudice towards large numbers of Jewish immigrants escaping widespread, brutal pogroms. But there’s no hint of what’s happening elsewhere in Amy Levy’s novel, the crisis for the Sachs’s clan’s primarily an internal struggle - assimilation’s a greater threat than exclusion. The consequences of anti-Semitism are presented indirectly, characters described as self-conscious, fixated on dressing correctly, fashionably – even when it doesn’t suit – numerous boasts about prestigious, gentile contacts, all the insecurities and anxieties of people who know they’re continually under scrutiny. An approach which made sense given Levy’s intention to counter recent literary stereotypes from blatantly offensive ‘Fagin’ figures to the overly-saintly – Daniel Deronda which is repeatedly referred to by Levy’s characters - by focusing in on ”…the Jew... with his curious mingling of diametrically opposed qualities, his surprising virtues and no less surprising vices."

The Sachs are a diverse group, secular versus devoutly observant, monied versus financially precarious, with as many rifts and divisions as points of harmony. Levy’s been called the “Jewish Jane Austen” but Reuben Sachs’s with its carefully-bounded metropolitan community reminded me more of Edith Wharton’s rigidly-stratified, claustrophobic, upper-class New York - both worlds riddled with stifling, stated, and unstated conventions. Austen typically favours the ‘marriage plot’, but Levy’s vision of marriage is a trap for women, not a route to liberation or lasting love. Judith’s bright but ignorant, living with relatives who regard books as an extravagance. She’s being raised as wife material, nothing more, lack of fortune lowering her value even further. Her married female relatives pass their time shopping or fixating on their children’s prospects, victims of circumstance yet often willing participants in their fate.

Levy’s critique of materialist values and depiction of generational conflict between the Sachs also recalled The Forsyte Saga; both portray social spheres shaped by myriad class distinctions. A society where a family’s postcode cements its standing, here the Bayswater Sachs hold firm sway over their Maida Vale relatives. The comparison with Galsworthy made me think that Levy – close friend of Eleanor Marx and Olive Schreiner - was writing less about Jewish middle-class life in isolation than in the context of late Victorian capitalism. So that the Sachs could be viewed as a small-scale representation of the price of conforming to a particular set of Victorian-era values. For Levy all the problems this raises are a feminist issue, the legacy and outcome of Jewish patriarchy; so that Judith becomes the heart of her story. A woman brought down by a system that privileges men at women’s expense. Although Levy’s men pay a high price too, depicted at worst as prone to madness, at best as unhealthy, ailing, bodies worn down by the weight of conforming to their parents’ high expectations.

Although the action feels overly-compressed at certain points, Levy’s short novel’s predominantly well-crafted, her prose style more direct, more modern than I’d anticipated, with an entertaining satirical edge, that occasionally falls flat, abruptly shifting register as it echoes Judith’s emotional state in its moving final stages. The narrator’s voice puzzled me though, sometimes at a distance, sometimes intimately involved, I couldn’t tell if it was outside the Jewish community looking in or inside looking out or if that lack of clarity was intentional. This sense of tension in the text seemed most glaring in the physical depiction of Levy’s characters, with an overemphasis on race and supposed racial characteristics that often made me uncomfortable, far too reminiscent of the unpalatable ideas circulating in that period’s ‘race science’ - I could see why some contemporary Jewish reviewers felt that Levy’s portrait was too negative. I also found it hard not to read this biographically: Levy’s own ambivalence about her heritage; her liminal position, both insider and outsider; her rejection of traditional femininity, Jewish or otherwise, in her education and her love of women. But even though it’s flawed, I thought this was fascinating, surprisingly complex, an interesting piece of cultural history and an involving sketch of an under-represented area of Victorian society.

[Katie Lumsden · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting read, and an important exploration of the Jewish community in Victorian London. I loved the character of Judith, and found some parts of the book deeply moving.

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reuben Sachs is a short novel written by a young British Jewish woman (she was in her 20s) in the 1880s, that consciously sets out to enlarge or correct the picture of the British Jewish community set out by George Eliot in Daniel Deronda. Amy Levy seems to have felt that George Eliot painted a picture that was at once too romantic and “eastern” and too homogeneous. Through the description of the various connections of Reuben Sachs, a young politician, Amy Levy shows us different attitudes and classes of British Jews according to their different ancestries – Sephardic, German, Polish, or long in Britain—how varied they were, although sharing certain attitudes, and how rooted some of them were in British society. There’s even a convert, an upper-class Englishman (the only character who seems interested in the religious side of being jewish).

Because of this agenda, the first half of the book is rather dry. Each character seems to be there to illustrate a role, and I found it hard to keep track of everybody. In the second half, the focus shifts to poor but aristocratic Judith Quixano and her love for Reuben. This made for a much more engaging story although it did need the first half as the backdrop.

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautifully crafted little novel. The language is faultless, pared down to only that which is needed, yet at the same time painting an unforgetable picture of Anglo-Jewish life at the end of the 19th century. The story is that of Reuben Sachs abnd his cousin Judith Quixano. Much is expected of young Reuben, and Judith is a poor relation, and a romance between them would be unthinkable in the gossipy, snobbish community they live in. In terms of plot it might be fair to say that not much happens until then end of the novel, the families visit one another, go shopping, and there is a ball. Yet a world is created in such a way as the people that live in it step right off the page.
This novel was written (some say) in answer to the highly romanticized portrait of Jewish life created by George Elliot in Daniel Deronda, and therefore caused some criticism at the time. Amy Levy was still quite a young woman when she wrote this novel, who knows what she may have achieved had she not committed suicide a few years later aged only 27.

[Tommi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of Reuben Sachs, which mostly consists of snarky commentary upon Jews and their lifestyle in 1880s London, is overshadowed by the more serious and introspective latter half, where the psychological dilemmas of Judith Quixano are given their overdue space. I wish the novel was a little longer and more developed, especially because so many families are introduced within these 150 pages. Nonetheless, this was a super quick and enjoyable read, and such a valuable work to be published by Persephone Books. Plus, there’s a sweet sense of modernism in the epilogue, one of my favorite parts of the novel.

[Mirta Trupp · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a tragic read. And I'm not speaking of the storyline. I know next to nothing about this author, but I feel sorry for what must have been her pitiful existence. What need was there to spew forth this venomous, stereotypical trope? That Oscar Wilde called this work "a classic," with its "directness" and "uncompromising truths," only strengthens my opinion. This book is "a shande far di Goyim."

Someone compared the author to Jane Austen for her style and social commenataries. I wholeheartedly disagree. Where Austen was witty, Levy was inciting and sardonic.

[Mela · Rating 4 out of 5]

A known (we have heard it many times, in various circumstances, places, etc.) story of love. This time it took place in the Jewish community in Victorian London. A bit of humour, interesting glimpses at the Jews, moving at some points.

Although not perfect (as Rosemary wrote), it is definitely worth reading.

[I have been listening to an audiobook from LibriVox and I can recommend it.]

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short novel tells a sweet, sad love story set in the Jewish community of 1880s London. Judith Quixano comes from a noble but impoverished family, and her cousin Reuben Sachs is a lawyer and aspiring Conservative MP. Amy Levy shows the restrictions and ambitions of these Jewish families, the materialism of the Leuniger family is contrasted with the cultural and spiritual longings of Judith, and her academic cousin Leo.

At times Amy Levy’s satire is quite cruel and unforgiving, and she talks often in terms of racial characteristics and what a modern reader would see as stereotypes. This was apparently a common view in the late Victorian period, and would not have seemed so jarring to readers then. In the later part of the novel, Levy integrates the attitudes that she observes in the Jewish community with the decisions and behaviour of Judith and Reuben, and this creates a more moving and sensitive story.

This is quite a beautiful and melancholy piece of writing, which provides a unusual perspective on a less well known part of Victorian society. It is partly a response to the romanticised portrayals of Daniel Deronda, but it also stands on its own as a love story with the universal aspects of all romances between two individuals. It is a shame that Levy died so young, as it would have been interesting to see how her work as a writer would have developed.

[Dennis Fischman · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I had read this 100-page story on its own, I would have thought of it as a well-written social satire with a poignant failed love story that reveals the paucity of choices for women in late-19th century England. I would also have remarked on the stereotypes of Jews that are common in English literature at the time and shaken my head sadly that a Jewish woman writer would reproduce those slighting images.

The introduction and appendices are what make me see the book as a critique of antisemitism, and a critique of assimilation and materialism from within the Jewish community. The editor suggests that what the English Christians see as inherently Jewish traits are responses by English Jews to the ways they had been literally excluded for two centuries and viewed as suspect and foreign even after being readmitted.

The book is modernist: it doesn’t explain, only portrays. That may be why Oscar Wilde spoke highly of the author. It is certainly one reason it’s hard to tell whose attitudes are being expressed at any given time: the characters’, the narrator’s, or those of the author herself.

So I am not surprised that some contemporary Jewish reviewers wished Amy Levy would have written the story of a man who sacrifices love for ambition and left Jews out of it. Others sneered that the author would do better to learn something, anything about the richness of the Jewish tradition before writing another book. (Sadly, she was overcome by her chronic depression and took her own life before she could have had a chance to do that.) And I agree that from this book, you would never have known that Thackeray wrote his book Vanity Fair without any Jewish characters who play a moving role. Materialism and social anxiety clearly are not group traits. They are ubiquitous and universal.

I give the novel three stars and this edited volume, four.

[Gwen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro che in poche pagine condensa una storia che cambia la vita. Sì, perché l'amore infelice tra il protagonista maschile, Reuben Sachs, che dà il titolo al romanzo, e Judith Quixano, sua lontana cugina di estrazione sociale inferiore, non ha modo di svilupparsi se il primo non vuole rinunciare all'ascesa mediante una carriera politica nel ramo dei conservatori. Siamo a Londra, verso la fine dell'Ottocento, e alla morale vittoriana si sommano le regole della comunità ebraica, a cui entrambi i personaggi e la stessa autrice appartengono. Amy Levy, con una prosa fluida e mai banale, critica la sua gente attraverso un punto di vista interno e mette in luce quel dissidio tra tradizione e modernità che la lacerò personalmente, essendo stata una delle prime donne ebree a frequentare Cambridge. Di fatto queste pagine non sono ascrivibili al mero tormento romantico, ma acquisiscono il valore di un ritratto attendibile della comunità ebraica inglese e di una storia di formazione incentrata su Judith, che prende coscienza della repressione della sfera individuale e mette in dubbio il sistema valoriale in cui è cresciuta, di cui infine nota storture e disarmonie. Il mio plauso va, ancora una volta, alle edizioni Jo March che con questa pubblicazione Jo Novel inaugurano una nuova fase e hanno riportato alla luce l'ultima opera di un'autrice poco conosciuta in Italia, ma meritevole di tutta l'attenzione possibile come artista. Se avete già letto il suo "La storia di una bottega", sapete che ha una penna incisiva, essenziale, profonda. Qui i toni sono meno rosei, ma di impatto. Come spiega in maniera illuminante Sara Mazzini nella prefazione, Amy Levy fu una donna che sperimentò la difficile ricerca di un posto per sé in quella società britannica a cui apparteneva, ma che non dava uguale riconoscimento ad altre componenti del suo essere (ebrea, donna e bisessuale). La sua scomparsa prematura ci ha privato di una mente brillante, che non possiamo dimenticare. La capacità di trasporre il reale - intimo e collettivo - emerge prepotentemente anche oggi dalle sue parole, che la traduzione sempre curata e raffinata di Elisabetta Parri ci restituisce in tutta la loro forza intrinseca.

[Pascale · Rating 3 out of 5]

Few imprints deliver books of such consistent quality as Persephone. At first I found this novella heavy-going, because of tirades against the way Jews look and behave on almost every page. Apparently the author was very ambivalent towards her own background, which may account partly for her suicide when she was 27 years old. But the story does gather momentum, and builds towards a thoroughly satisfying finale. In the end I found it not only a curio but a genuine if slight achievement. The topic is one of universal relevance: put quite simply, the difference between men and women. Reuben Sachs can't resist his drive to enter the political arena, even if it means he has to give up the woman he loves. At least he has the good sense and moral backbone to realize that for him, in the long run, ambition will trump passion, and to act accordingly. This makes for a subtle plot line and character analysis.
In these evil ebook days, I pity the people who forego the pleasures of buying, owning and handling the delightful objects produced by Persephone Books.

[Romily · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel was almost as interesting for its author as for its subject matter. Amy Levy is surprisingly little-known: a highly-educated British Jew, who attended Cambridge in the 1880s, travelled widely and published poetry and fiction before her early death by suicide at the young age of 27. Reuben Sachs (1888) is her most famous work and though slight of plot it packs into its 150 pages a kaleidoscope of Jewish characters, their different characteristics described with great skill. From the old paterfamilias Solomon to the aristocratic convert Bertie Lee-Harrison, Amy Levy covers all shades and nuances of belief and observance in a perceptive and often satiric manner, which at the time upset the Anglo-Jewish community. She is never less than fair and clear-sighted and her book helps to demystify a group of people who have often been misunderstood. Levy would surely have developed her skills even further had she lived.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leaves you wondering what more Amy Levy might have achieved had she not committed suicide in 1889, in her late 20s. After reading this novel, Oscar Wilde described Levy as 'a girl of genius', and in many ways she was a precursor of modernism. She admired Jane Austen and that influence is clear in the plot and her ironic style. However her darker vision also encompassed a critique of capitalism and a feminist perspective.

[Elizabeth Wix · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rather slow at the beginning and unfortunate that Amy Levy has been called "the Jewish Jane Austen". Her character descriptions are not in the least Austenesque
but the book is utterly readable and we do feel for the characters.
A bit too much discussion of'the race of Shem' for modern taste but this book is very much of its period and definitely worth reading.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

If Amy Levy wanted to make this story into the antithesis of DANIEL DERONDA by George Elliot, then I think she succeeded. Not only does she take issue with the idealism of Elliot’s Jews, but the book is only a fraction of the size of its more well-known counterpart. The characters, the plots, everything is skeletal here, in contrast to the overflowing Deronda.

Though in all respects, I compared the two books. :P Like this Reuben Sachs character, the titular guy on whose hopes are hung all the inspirations of his family….yeah. Daniel Deronda was the same, except that he didn’t actually succeed in becoming this paradigm of his society’s ideals, and instead ultimately chased a legacy that was much grander. And, presumably, he didn’t lose his life for it, either!

The female lead/love interest, Judith, is perhaps a mix of Gwendolen and Mirah…she’s obsessed with Reuben, like both of the other heroines are with Deronda, she receives instruction from him on how to “better” herself, particularly like Gwendolen, and also particularly like Gwendolen, Judith does not get the man. This is largely due to her background as a poor relation and ward of her relatives, which is kind of similar to Mirah, except that Mirah does get the guy at the end. Judith gets stuck with the convert (!!!) Bertie. The text explicitly states: “Bertie, as Gwendolen Harleth said of Grandcourt, was not disgusting.” Which: yay? An okish premise on which to start a marriage? Though I wouldn’t necessarily call Grandcourt’s character “not disgusting,” and seeing how things ended with his wife, I doubt Gwendolen would leave it there, either. :P

The text continues, re Judith and Bertie: “He took his love, as he took his religion, very theoretically.” Thid indicates that Bertie’s relationship with Judaism (and his Jewish wife??) might be brief, because the Jewish community in this book is described as wholly materialistic. No matter the lip service Levy supplies for the differing denominations: an orthodoxy, the Reformed temple, and the Sephardic congregation, all patronized by various members of Reuben’s extended family (including Judith.)

The final, perhaps most anti-Deronda character is cousin Leo, who despises his community for its materialism. Definitely no shades of the other man’s idealistic, pseudo-Zionism here! Leo wants to become a musician, which is solely the purview of assimilated Jewish women (and one man) in Deronda. He detests London materialism, which brings me to the point that perhaps Levy was blaming her community for an issue that existed far beyond it. But instead, Levy, like most English classicists, denigrates the middle class for needing money to survive, and denigrates Jews, in the Victorian style shared with DANIEL DERONDA, as being a stereotypical race where everyone is supposed to act and believe exactly the same.

It's strange to call the Jewish community that monotonous when, as mentioned, also paying lip service to different denominations within. As the London Fictions review points out, Levy makes no reference to the influx of Jews to England at the time, most of whom were escaping the violent pogroms of the European empires to the east. So, the assimilation of her Jewish characters in London society doesn’t feel entirely assured, either, even if I can’t blame her for not predicting the Holocaust, much less how Zionism would thus turn into a fringe idea to a central one in Jewish discourse. In the mid-19th century, indeed it would still be applicable to mock, as a character does in this story, “I think,” said Leo, “that he [Bertie] was shocked at finding us so little like the people in DANIEL DERONDA.” “Did he expect,” cried Esther, “to see our boxes in the hall, ready packed and labeled ‘Palestine?’”

As for Reuben himself, who dreamed of becoming the first Conservative MP who didn’t convert, the pressure he (and his community?) put him under ultimately cost him his life, in a scene foreshadowed from the very beginning from a visit to the doctor’s. It feels like a more modern critique of Judaism: as a religion of over-achievers, whereas I think Levy’s most personal scorn was saved for the patriarchal attitudes. Though I find it a shame in a book that references various Jewish holidays and customs, she couldn’t paint a more complicated picture.

Ultimately, I didn’t connect to the characters here; everything felt rushed and unsupported. I can complain all I want about the endless subplots in DANIEL DERONDA, but at least the characters were compelling to me. The writing was also more droll, though to be snobby, perhaps this was aided by a Librivox audio narrator vs the more professional job of DANIEL DERONDA? It is worth noting that Levy wrote her book in her twenties, whereas George Elliot was in her fifties, and much more accomplished, when she penned DANIEL DERONDA.

Levy’s own story is tragic, which perhaps plays its way into the narrative of her fiction. But meh. I didn’t really buy it on its own terms.

[Sennen Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved this. I really enjoyed the Romance of A Shop when I read it last year, and this felt like Levy had really honed her craft, it felt much less juvenile and a lot stronger. I’m heartbroken she never got to write more! I think me and Amy Levy would really get on, her outlook seems to be the same as mine which is: most people, no matter who they are or where they are from, are pretty much the same and want the same things and worry about the same things. The great tragedy of the world is to see your fellow man, to see whole communities, as Other, when actually you always have more in common. You could put that love story in any community, right, it’s why the marriage plot is universal!! As a love story it was utterly emotionally devastating. There are certain things about her politics (did Eleanor not introduce her to Marxism?) that are imperfect but honestly, like, this was wonderful and I loved reading it. An adaptation starring Andrew Garfield as Reuben WHEN!!!!

[Callum McLaughlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

First published in 1888, this forgotten classic was revived by the wonderful Persephone Books. I really admire the ideas Levy was exploring, with the novel essentially serving as an indictment of the strict hold societal rules held over people’s lives, with particular regard to class, wealth, reputation, and religion.

While I can appreciate that it would be somewhat revolutionary in its day for a woman to write an outwardly critical view of life as a Jew in Victorian London, by today’s standards it all feels a bit pedestrian and lacking in drive, with little in the way of outright conflict or development beyond what the blurb sets out.

Still, Levy’s prose remains very readable, capturing the look and feel of the era in which she lived, and though the delivery underwhelmed, her themes of expectation, hypocrisy, and suppression remain relevant.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Persephone book that I have had on my shelf for a while, picking it up and putting it back thinking that a book about a Jewish man would not be so interesting and wondering why I bought it...
I researched the author and found that she committed suicide one year after the book was written. This, I think had an enormous impact on the writing.
It was slow and gentle in the usual Victorian way with the ending being not what I expected, quite sad and emotional. Within the novel the author mentions a few more contemporary authors which sound interesting to read.

[Gwynplaine26th · Rating 3 out of 5]

Già dalla sottoscritta apprezzata in "La storia di una bottega", Amy Levy converge in Reuben Sachs (che non brilla quanto il più celebre titolo) forze ed occasioni - magari non tutte a segno - con cui mettere in scena lo scontro tra la cerchia di ebrei più tradizionalisti e quella dei laici, partendo da una premessa abbastanza comune alle trame vittoriane, ovvero una tragica storia d'amore.

Fuori, intanto, le strade di Londra, pullulanti di vita e possibilità..

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tear or two were shed.

[Katie Poland · Rating 4 out of 5]

The more I read over this book for my class, the more I like it. Amy Levy’s writing is concise but beautifully so, and I felt so attached to Judith and Reuben’s stories. There were so many really good quotes and overall I loved the tragic aspect of this story too🥹

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing style for this Victorian era novel felt modern and not very stuffy at all. I found it hard to believe that this was written around the time Daniel Deronda was written (the book is a little bit of a riposte to George Eliot's overly exotic, romantic treatment of Jewish characters in that book).

It is about an extended Jewish family in England during the 1800s, and mainly centers around the romantic sparks that fly between a young up-and-coming politician (Reuben Sachs) and his adoptive cousin, whose own family was too poor to raise her. It deals with issues of Jewish identity in English society, and even includes an earnest English Christian character who converts to Judaism. It felt more like a short story than a novel, actually, in that it's not quite about the plot, but more about experiencing a psychological progression that occurs in the characters. It feels very modern, and I related to the way social expectations, particularly those tied to your ethnic culture, sometimes holds so much power over your decisions.

Along the way, the book is laugh out loud funny -- for example, it describes the mother of the main character as having the look of someone who is in poor health, but nevertheless looking as if she would be rather hard to kill. Amy Levy's voice is wry and sharp. She makes fun of Jewish social manners. When the book was published, Levy, who is Jewish, was accused of being anti-Semitic. Not sure if she is, but perhaps she does have some sharp observations about materialism of the upper class Jewish families in England during her time. But if Jane Austen can poke fun at the superficiality and silliness of society, I'm not sure why Levy isn't allowed to. Anyway, this book provides a glimpse into British Jewish society in an era when Jewish people are usually caricaturized in major classics by Charles Dickens and Anthony Trollope.

I read it as a chaser to Daniel Deronda, which I really liked as well, warts and all.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a curious little book about Jewish life in late Victorian London and I certainly wouldn’t have heard of it if not for Persephone Books reprinting it, despite the author being a friend of Oscar Wilde’s. The book is really more about Judith Quixano, the woman the titular Reuben Sachs loves, than about Reuben himself, although he’s there in the background. I wish it was longer because I wanted to know more about this world of Jewish Victorians, so similar to many Victorian books I’ve read (perhaps most like The Forsyte Saga in that both family groups seem to be among the nouveau-riche upper middle class that was developing in that time period and more focused on upward mobility in society than personal fulfillment) and yet with certain slight differences, like everyone going to synagogue instead of church.

In some ways the slightly isolated and insular world of the Jewish community reminded me of growing up in extremely charismatic/evangelical Christian circles - the same slight cluelessness of what’s going on in the outside world and how to behave there. The characters in this book are actually less rabidly religious than I was raised though and they laugh at the zealousness of George Eliot’s Jewish characters in Daniel Deronda who are headed off to Palestine by the end of that book. But this author, unlike George Eliot, was actually Jewish and so is more acutely able to portray the little compromises that creep into all our lives as we grow up. The book isn’t long but it does contain some moving moments and explorations of a woman’s inner life that made it worth reading for me.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first Persephone!

Reuben Sachs sounded incredibly promising when I came across it in Skoob, my absolute favourite second hand book store in London. The blurb describes it as a 'feminist plea' and 'praised by Oscar Wilde'. Well, I just had to pick that up. However, upon finishing the novel, I can't help but feel a little underwhelmed.

Unfortunately, the first two thirds of the story was rather dull. We follow Reuben himself and Judith Quixano, two young Jews in London. Although it seems that Amy Levy was from a Jewish upbringing herself, some of her stereotypical comments towards characters of the faith did make me a little uncomfortable. However, considering when this novel was published - in the late 1800s - it is simply a product of it's time.

Despite all this, I did enjoy the story overall, and this is mainly down to the last third. The last third was simply stunning. If the entire book had been written as wonderfully, and had been as interesting, as the final third then I would have given this four stars at least. The language was emotive, ornate, and reminded me quite of Jane Austen. In contrast to Jane however, this is definitely an unconventional and surprising love story. It has it's twists and turns. I do still recommend this if you're a fan of Jane Austen or if you're a seasoned Persephone connoisseur. I just wish it hadn't been my first.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A novel that is really interesting historically if not fabulous literarily. Very much a critique-of-the-marriage-market novel of the New Woman type, but also a critique of Jewish materialism in late 19th-century London ... although it's clear in that critique that Jews have absorbed the larger English materialism. The Jewish men are social climbers, the Christian English men are unattractive snobs, and all of the women are shallow and/or unpleasant ... so it's that sort of novel! But it's fascinating as an explicit response to George Eliot's romanticized Judaism in Daniel Deronda:
“I think” said Leo, “that he was shocked at finding us so little like the people in Daniel Deronda.”
“Did he expect,” cried Esther, “to see our boxes in the hall, ready packed and labelled Palestine?”
“I have always been touched,” said Leo, “at the immense good faith with which George Eliot carried out that elaborate misconception of hers.” (Ch. 9)

[Sarah Schulman]

This was a historically fascinating novel, written at the end of the 19th century in Britain by Amy Levy, a young lesbian Jewish novelist who killed herself before her 30th birthday after a relationship with the writer Vernon Lee. The novel is kind of a counter point to physiognomy theories about Jewish that were in play at the time, shows anxieties about social exclusion and depicts women trying to find independence. The writing style is somewhat experimental for a Victorian novel. The intro is fascinating and the appendix includes amazing documents including her obituary written by Oscar Wilde, and a piece Amy wrote at 17 defending Jewish women.

[Elif Naz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a true pleasure to read. I read it at the same time I was watching Fleishman is in Trouble - and the parallels between Jewish characters of 1890s London and 2010s New York was really interesting to see and reflect about - more similarities than I would have thought. Levy's language is to the point, sometimes blunt, and acutely diagnostic. I do not know of course how much of what she wrote reflected the truth of her time and how much of it was her subjective and personal perspective, but I liked getting to know the characters of the larger Sachs family.

[Gillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a terrific Hanukkah treat from our daughter! Late Victorian snapshot of Jewish life in London, addressing issues not all that different from those seen in our 2019-2020 world. Reading the novel was colored for me by the young author's tragic life, but the story stands alone (flaws and all) as a fascinating tale (almost TV series in nature, it's so vivid), mostly because of the background. Read by Hanukkah candlelight, just perfect!!!

[Paul Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Jewish Thomas Hardy. Starcrossed lovers who take choices that suit their circumstances and peer group rather than following their heart. The choices they take prove fatal, both literally and metaphorically. That the novel was said to be anti-Semitic and panned by critics probably contributed to the depression that lead to the tragic suicide of the author.