''The Bridal Canopy'' (, ''Hakhnasat Kallah''), a novel by

Shmuel Yosef Agnon Shmuel Yosef Agnon (; August 8, 1887 – February 17, 1970) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Israeli novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was one of the central figures of modern Hebrew literature. In Hebrew, he is known by the pseudonym Shai A ...

, is considered to be one of the first classics of modern

Hebrew literature Hebrew literature consists of ancient, medieval, and modern writings in the Hebrew language. It is one of the primary forms of Jewish literature, though there have been cases of literature written in Hebrew by non-Jews, mostly among the Arab cit ...

. In 1966, Agnon shared the

Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...

, the first author to do so writing in modern Hebrew.

Synopsis

Agnon's novel describes the fictional wanderings of Reb Yudel through the Jewish villages of Galicia at the beginning of the 19th century, in search of a bridegroom and a dowry for his daughter. A modern critic described Agnon's fictional Reb Yudel as "naively pious." Others have characterized the fictional Reb Yudel as a Jewish archetype of

Don Quixote , the full title being ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'', is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and is of ...

. Avraham Holtz has explored the roots of Agnon's central character in a character from

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

folklore, Reb Yudel Hasid. The English translation by Israel Meir Lask was first published in 1937 by Doubleday and then in 1967 from the publisher Schocken Books New York.

References

1931 novels Hebrew-language literature Israeli novels {{1930s-novel-stub