The Manor and The Estate

Originally published in Yiddish between 1953-1955 as a single work, Isaac Bashevis Singer's The Manor and The Estate now appears as a single-volume English edition. Recounting the tales of Polish Jews in the second half of the nineteenth century - a time of rapid industrial growth and radical social change - the novel depicts the Jewish community moving from the ghetto to prominence within Polish society. As Singer writes in his author's note, "All the spiritual and intellectual ideas that triumphed in the modern era had their roots in the world of that time - socialism and nationalism, Zionism and assimilationism, nihilism and anarchism, suffragettism, atheism, the weakening of the family bond, free love, and even the beginnings of Fascism." Telling the story of Calman Jacoby, who stands between the old and the new, the book portrays the difficulties encountered by traditional Jews coming to terms with the changes brought on by modernity.