Description
About the Author
Howard Schwartz is Professor of English at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He is the editor of four important collections of Jewish folklore: Elijah's Violin & Other Jewish Fairy Tales, Miriam's Tambourine: Jewish Folktales from Around the World, Lilith's Cave: Jewish Tales of the Supernatural, and Gabriel's Palace: Jewish Mystical Tales. He is also the author of Reimagining the Bible: The Storytelling of the Rabbis and Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism, which won the National Jewish Book Award in 2005.
Reviews
"The cast of characters alone is stunning: Moses and Elijah, David and Solomon, angels and demons, wonder-working rabbis and evil sorcerers, princes and peasants, even Jewish versions of Snow White and Cinderella...This book is a big, beguiling gem, changing colors as you tilt it toward the light. From one angle, it's a world of inventive adventures that children will love; from another angle, a collection of religious allegories that will engage and challenge adults; from yet another angle, a shimmering record of Jewish dreams." --JBooks.com "Looking for tales about demon marriages or angel encounters, magic spells or epic quests? They're all right here, and then some." --Jerusalem Post In the learned introduction to "Leaves From the Garden of Eden," Schwartz performs the admirable feat of dissecting how and why these tales have lasted so long without allowing the spotlight he shines on them to reduce their ability to delight. ...With Schwartz as their guide through this Garden of Eden, [readers] will find not only enchanting stories but a new understanding of a heritage that lives on, strongly. Four years after Tree of Souls took our breaths away with myths of the Jewish tradition, three-time National Jewish Book Award winner Howard Schwartz now brings us a reference pulsing with one hundred magical, miraculous, and spiritual Jewish stories. ...Comprehensive notes and commentary root each story and draw its ties to Jewish tradition. The five appendices are crowning jewels, which also define and index the tales by source, story cycle (of, about, and by key protagonists), countries of origin, specialized subject types, and Arne-Thompson tale types." -- ewish Book World
Book Information
ISBN 9780195335651
Author Howard Schwartz
Format Hardback
Page Count 540
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 906g
Dimensions(mm) 240mm * 163mm * 39mm