TEMPTATIONS
A BOOK OF SHORT STORIES
TEMPTATIONS
A BOOK OF SHORT STORIES
BY
DAVID PINSKI
AUTHORISED TRANSLATION FROM
THE YIDDISH BY
DR. ISAAC GOLDBERG
LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD.
RUSKIN HOUSE, 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C. 1
Copyright in U.S.A.; 1919, by Brentano’s
First published in Great Britain 1921
[Pg v]
CONTENTS
| PAGE | |
| Introduction | vii |
| Beruriah | 3 |
| The Temptations of Rabbi Akiba | 83 |
| Johanan the High Priest | 101 |
| Zerubbabel | 131 |
| Drabkin: a Novelette of Proletarian Life | 169 |
| The Black Cat | 255 |
| A Tale of a Hungry Man | 277 |
| In the Storm | 313 |
[Pg vii]
INTRODUCTION
The same traits that distinguish DavidPinski as a playwright characterise himalso as a writer of short fiction. The notedYiddish author is concerned chiefly with theprobing of the human soul,—not that intangibleand inconsequential theme of so many vapourings,dubbed mystic and symbolistic by theliterary labellers,—but the hidden mainspringthat initiates, and often guides, our actions.Pinski seeks to penetrate into the secret ofhuman motive. It is not enough for him todepict the deed; he would plumb, if possible, thegenetic impulse. That is why, if he must beclassified, one places him among the psychologicalrealists. He is at his best faithful to boththe inner and the outer life.
Thus we find,