Old Truths and New Cliches, Isaac Bashevis Singer
Old Truths and New Cliches, Isaac Bashevis Singer
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Old Truths and New Clichés
Essays by Isaac Bashevis Singer

Author: Isaac Bashevis Singer, David Stromberg

Narrator: Stephen R. Thorne

Unabridged: 7 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 05/17/2022


Synopsis

Old Truths and New Clichés collects nineteen essays—most of them previously unpublished in English—by Isaac Bashevis Singer on topics that were central to his artistic vision throughout an astonishing and prolific literary career spanning more than six decades. Expanding on themes reflected in his best-known work, the book illuminates in new ways the rich intellectual, aesthetic, religious, and biographical background of Singer's singular achievement as the first Yiddish-language author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Like a modern Montaigne, Singer studied human nature and created a body of work that contributed to a deeper understanding of the human spirit. Much of his philosophical thought was funneled into his stories. Yet these essays, which Singer himself translated into English or oversaw the translation of, present his ideas in a new way, as universal reflections on the role of the artist in modern society.

Old Truths and New Clichés brims with stunning archival finds that will make a significant impact on how listeners understand Singer and his work. Singer's critical essays have long been overlooked because he has been thought of almost exclusively as a storyteller. This book offers an important correction to the record by further establishing Singer as a formidable intellectual.

About Isaac Bashevis Singer

Isaac Bashevis Singer (1903-1991) was the Nobel Prize-winning author of many novels, short story collections, memoirs, and children's books, including Gimpel the Fool and Other Stories, The Magician of Lublin, and Enemies, A Love Story.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jeffrey on July 27, 2022

Somewhere in Heaven, Singer must be smiling, or cursing. For years, he wanted to compile and publish a book of his essays. Thank God it finally happened – in my lifetime, at least. Thank you, David Stromberg, editor. Thank you Princeton University Press, publisher. I’m so grateful that you gave us th......more

Goodreads review by Greg on December 23, 2024

Isaac Bashevis Singer is one of my favorite writers. Reading the Library of America’s three volume collection of his short stories was a profound, intense joy of an addiction. This collection of essays, however, was a real letdown. Divided into three thematical sections, the first, “The Literary Arts......more

Goodreads review by Rachel on August 25, 2022

When considering major Jewish literary figures of the past 100 years, Isaac Bashevis Singer and Amos Oz certainly qualify, even though they represent two different traditions. Singer has been called a master of Yiddish literature (something with which the Nobel Prize Committee agreed) while Oz was d......more

Goodreads review by John on October 13, 2024

Like most posthumous odds-and-ends anthologies of writers, this gathers scraps. The editor admits how he had to cobble together coherent versions, and how a lot of these entries were in a condition requiring close reconstruction. The results as he intends do show the literary, philosophical, and Yid......more

Goodreads review by Karli on May 11, 2024

I was very moved by many of these essays, particularly the ones about Judaism and Jewish history. The writing about the lack of integrity in children's literature was also impactful. He could have been writing all of these essays today. Their truths, as indicated in the title, have been known for so......more