Two tales: Betrothed & Edo and Enam, by S.Y. Agnon; translated from the Hebrew by Walter Lever

 

These are two novellas written by celebrated Hebrew novelist S.Y. Agnon, who was the recipient of the Nobel prize in Literature in 1966. Betrothed is about Jacob Rechnitz, a botanist who immigrates to Palestine. Unable to find work in his field, he takes a position teaching Latin and German, in which he does very well. He lives a comfortable existence, and is friendly with a group of six young women with whom he walks and talks regularly. One day he learns that his benefactor is visiting; Herr Ehrlich was a neighbor to Jacob during his youth, and helped fund his education. Ehrlich's daughter Susan accompanies her father on the visit to Jacob, and reminds him of their childhood promise to marry. Jacob promises to keep his pledge, but Susan becomes sick with an illness she picked up on her travels. Jacob goes for a walk with his six women friends, and they propose a race with the winner being the one who would marry Jacob. As they race across the sand, they are overtaken by Susan, who wins the race. Edo and Enam tells an even stranger tale. The narrator visits his friends, Gerhard Greifenbach and his wife Gerda, who are planning a trip abroad. They've taken in a lodger, Dr. Ginath, but he's not often there. They're concerned about their house being broken into while they're gone, so they leave their keys with the narrator who promises to visit occasionally and make sure everything's OK. The narrator's family goes to visit relatives out of town, so he decides to spend a night or two at the Greifenbach's. While there, he's visited by his friend Gabriel Gamzu, a rare book and manuscript dealer. Gamzu tells the narrator about his wife, Gemulah, who is sickly and unless Gamzu uses charms to prevent it, sleepwalks at night. He reports that he lost the charms he uses, and she has disappeared. The next night Gamzu shows up again and tells the narrator that his wife has returned. Even though he doesn't have the charms, he's using another trick to keep her from leaving the bed while sleepwalking: leaving a wet cloth on the floor next to the bed. Apparently, this is meant to wake her up if she gets out of bed. While talking, they overhear something in the next room and find Gemulah talking to Dr. Ginath, whom they didn't realize was there. Ginath sends Gemulah home with Gamzu. A month later, the narrator sees a death notice, and learns that Ginath and Gemulah have died; Ginath saw Gemulah on a roof, and trying to save her, they both fell to their deaths. The story ends with the funeral and the return of the Greifenbach's.

I found both stories interesting, but strange. There are a lot of digressions from the main narratives, and some strange, magical sequences. There's no sense of history in these stories, just a feeling of provincial life in what seems like a backwater locale. I liked reading Gamzu's stories about hunting down books and manuscripts; in many cases, he's buying books from wealthy people who are unloading their families' religious texts. And why did all the names in Edo and Enam begin with a G?