The Imported Bridegroom, and Other Stories of the New York Ghetto

Abraham CahanProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.8

Word count: 278K words
Chapters: 28

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Imported Bridegroom, and Other Stories of the New York Ghetto by Abraham CahanAuthor: Cahan, Abraham, 1860-1951,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jun 24, 2013

Editor's review

Set in the Jewish immigrant quarter of New York and written in English, this story collection is a primary text for understanding late nineteenth-century American immigrant literature. Cahan was himself an immigrant, and his characters are mostly Jewish families newly arrived in the New World; the stories revolve around arranged marriages, generational conflict, the pressure to make a living, and cultural adaptation. The title story, "The Imported Bridegroom," focuses most sharply on the tug of war between Old World tradition and New World reality. The prose is plain and restrained, the detail solid; the stories do not rely on dramatic plot but build tension through observation of everyday circumstances. For readers studying immigration history, American urban history, or Jewish literature, the book offers a social record in fictional form that can be read alongside historical documents. General readers can also take it as a collection of short stories—the pieces are short and well suited to being read one at a time in spare moments. Note that the language carries the marks of its period, and some Yiddish cultural background must be supplied by the reader.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers studying American immigrant literature and Jewish immigration history
Readers interested in short stories about life among the urban poor in America
Teachers and students needing supplementary material for English literature courses
Readers who like plain realist style and short, compact stories

Not a good fit for

Casual readers expecting strong plot and fast-paced narrative
Beginners with no familiarity with late nineteenth-century immigrant culture
Readers who read only Chinese translations and do not wish to engage with the English original

Reading tips

Start with the title story, "The Imported Bridegroom," to grasp the book's central themes of marriage and generational conflict.
After each story, briefly note how the characters make a living and how family relations change, to connect the pieces across the book.
Read alongside background material on late nineteenth-century New York immigration history to better understand the situations in the stories.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book the English original or a Chinese translation?

This is the English original e-book provided by Project Gutenberg, in English; the characters' dialogue also carries the period features of immigrant English. For reading in Chinese, you will need to find a translation separately or read the two side by side.

Can I understand it without a background in Jewish culture?

Yes, but some marriage customs, religious life, and Yiddish expressions will require extra checking. It is advisable to first learn the basic history of Eastern European Jewish immigration to New York in the late nineteenth century; the stories will then read more smoothly.

Is it suitable as classroom teaching material?

It is suitable for courses on American literature, immigration history, or urban history; the short pieces lend themselves to discussion in stages. Teachers should, however, supply historical background and note the period differences in the language so that students do not mistake it for contemporary English.

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About the author

Abraham Cahan Author · American · 1860–1951

Abraham Cahan (1860–1951) was an American journalist, writer, and socialist activist. Born in Vilna in the Russian Empire (now Lithuania), he emigrated to the United States in 1882. He was a co-founder and long-time editor of the Yiddish daily newspaper the Jewish Daily Forward, which became an important voice for Eastern European Jewish immigrants in America. Cahan's fiction draws largely on life in the Jewish immigrant neighborhoods of New York, depicting with realistic detail the immigrants' struggles with language, customs, and identity. His novel The Rise of David Levinsky (1917) is regarded as a classic of the Jewish immigrant experience; Yekl and The Imported Bridegroom, and Other Stories of the New York Ghetto explore similar themes, and he also wrote The White Terror and The Red, a novel set against the Russian Revolution. His work combines a journalist's observation with a novelist's narrative skill, leaving an important record of American Jewish immigrant literature.