Book Rec of the Day: The Spanish Ballad/The Jewess of Toledo by Leon Feuchtwanger
(Posting about El Cid reminded me of this)
The German writer Leon Feuchtwanger is not well-known in the English world, even though some of his novels have been translated (including the one I am about to recommend though I cannot vouch for the quality of the translation as I read the gorgeous Russian translation instead).
Nonetheless, he is a nuanced and wonderful author and my favorite of all his novels is The Spanish Ballad (also known as The Jewess of Toledo), a tragic, passionate love story between Castillian King Alfonso VIII and Raquel la Hermosa (it's apparently based on a true story). Raquel is a Jewish daughter of Ben Yehuda, Alfonso's new finance minister, who moved from the Muslim portion of Spain to Alfonso's Christian court in order to accept the position. Alfonso loves Raquel madly and cannot live without her even as he despises his own "sin" in feeling this way for an infidel whose religion he despises. Raquel loves him but she cannot give up either her religion or her pacifist world view. And everyone at court hates the influence she wields. It ends about as well as you expect.
I love the novel for its lyrical prose, for its tragic romance, for its meditation on the follies of war and fanaticism (Feuchtwanger is fine with religion but hates fanatics of every stripe - the whole story is tragic due to Medieval Christian warrior ethos but Jewish fanatics come for its share of scorn). It does not end as depressingly as you may expect (especially if you've read other Feuchtwanger works) but, if you are like me, you are still going to bawl for pages and pages.
My favorite scene in the novel is actually near the end when Alfonso tells his confessor: "I loved her more than my immortal soul." What would sound like (a slightly dramatic but routine) avowal of love becomes something unimaginably huge in light of Medieval Christian doctrine (this statement is sheer heresy) and in light of the characters' actions. He loved her enough to be fine with damnation but he left her to go to hopeless, pointless war and so she was killed and he was not there to protect her, and no matter how he wants to expiate and knows he was wrong, nothing can be fixed, ever. His thirst for war and religious fanaticism of his people caused the death of the only person who ever made him happy and he must live with it for the rest of his life.
Anyway, if you can fine, I recommend it. But I am not giving up my copy :)
The German writer Leon Feuchtwanger is not well-known in the English world, even though some of his novels have been translated (including the one I am about to recommend though I cannot vouch for the quality of the translation as I read the gorgeous Russian translation instead).
Nonetheless, he is a nuanced and wonderful author and my favorite of all his novels is The Spanish Ballad (also known as The Jewess of Toledo), a tragic, passionate love story between Castillian King Alfonso VIII and Raquel la Hermosa (it's apparently based on a true story). Raquel is a Jewish daughter of Ben Yehuda, Alfonso's new finance minister, who moved from the Muslim portion of Spain to Alfonso's Christian court in order to accept the position. Alfonso loves Raquel madly and cannot live without her even as he despises his own "sin" in feeling this way for an infidel whose religion he despises. Raquel loves him but she cannot give up either her religion or her pacifist world view. And everyone at court hates the influence she wields. It ends about as well as you expect.
I love the novel for its lyrical prose, for its tragic romance, for its meditation on the follies of war and fanaticism (Feuchtwanger is fine with religion but hates fanatics of every stripe - the whole story is tragic due to Medieval Christian warrior ethos but Jewish fanatics come for its share of scorn). It does not end as depressingly as you may expect (especially if you've read other Feuchtwanger works) but, if you are like me, you are still going to bawl for pages and pages.
My favorite scene in the novel is actually near the end when Alfonso tells his confessor: "I loved her more than my immortal soul." What would sound like (a slightly dramatic but routine) avowal of love becomes something unimaginably huge in light of Medieval Christian doctrine (this statement is sheer heresy) and in light of the characters' actions. He loved her enough to be fine with damnation but he left her to go to hopeless, pointless war and so she was killed and he was not there to protect her, and no matter how he wants to expiate and knows he was wrong, nothing can be fixed, ever. His thirst for war and religious fanaticism of his people caused the death of the only person who ever made him happy and he must live with it for the rest of his life.
Anyway, if you can fine, I recommend it. But I am not giving up my copy :)