The Jews of Barnow: Stories. Translated from the German by M. W. Macdowall

The Jews of Barnow is a collection of 8 short stories written by Karl Emil Franzos, a popular Austrian novelist of the late 19th century. The action takes place in a small town in Galicia during the late nineteenth century. The following stories, which are set in the Podolsk ghetto, were the author's first literary attempt. Most of them were written while he was at university and published in various magazines. The author carefully studied each story and tried to bring everything into a clear connection with each other, which gave a clear idea of Polish Judaism in the late 19th century as a whole. For this reason, new tales were introduced: they describe Jewish customs, which were initially hushed up, but which were necessary for a correct understanding of the subject. This book has been translated into all European languages and into Hebrew. The author also had the pleasure of presenting this book to the English public, and hoped that it would be received as kindly as anywhere else. The author hoped for this not so much for himself as for the sake of those unfortunate people whose life he described.