The King of Schnorrers

Description

The King of Schnorrers (1893) is a novel by Israel Zangwill. Raised in London by parents from Latvia and Poland, Zangwill understood the plight of the city's Jewish community firsthand. Having risen through poverty to become an educator and author, he dedicated his career to the voiceless, the oppressed, and the needy, advocating for their rights and bearing witness to their suffering in some of the most powerful novels and stories of the Victorian era. When "England denied her Jews every civic right except that of paying taxes," a class Schnorrers, or beggars, was forced through desperation to survive by the charity of others. On Sabbath days, the entrance to London's synagogues are crowded with groups of these men, seeking from more recent immigrants, from those not yet driven to poverty, some small token of brotherhood. As Joseph Grobstock, a successful merchant, emerges from the service, he is accosted by a man who appeals first to his charitable nature. When Grobstock insults the man with a penny, causing the other Schnorrers to laugh at his expense, Manasseh Bueno Barzillai Azevedo da Costa, a Sephardi, curses Grobstock, who proceeds to argue in an effort to preserve his honor. The King of Schnorrers, a brilliant satire, earned Zangwill comparisons to Dickens and Twain upon publication, and helped to establish him as an author with a gift for intensive character study and a passion for political themes. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Israel Zangwill's The King of Schnorrers is a classic of British literature reimagined for modern readers.

Israel Zangwill (1864-1926) was a British writer. Born in London, Zangwill was raised in a family of Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire. Alongside his brother Louis, a novelist, Zangwill was educated at the Jews' Free School in Spitalfields, where he studied secular and religious subjects. He excelled early on and was made a teacher in his teens before studying for his BA at the University of London. After graduating in 1884, Zangwill began publishing under various pseudonyms, finding editing work with Ariel and The London Puck to support himself. His first novel, Children of the Ghetto: A Study of Peculiar People (1892), was published to popular and critical acclaim, earning praise from prominent Victorian novelist George Gissing. His play The Melting Pot (1908) was a resounding success in the United States and was regarded by Theodore Roosevelt as "among the very strong and real influences upon [his] thought and [his] life." He spent his life in dedication to various political and social causes. An early Zionist and follower of Theodor Herzl, he later withdrew his support in favor of territorialism after he discovered that "Palestine proper has already its inhabitants." Despite distancing himself from the Zionist community, he continued to advocate on behalf of the Jewish people and to promote the ideals of feminism alongside his wife Edith Ayrton, a prominent author and activist.