He is not ahead of his time; he is rather
an interpreter and inspirer of his own day. This makes him the happy
person that he is. He is greatly honored in Russia and in Germany, and
by all writers in Europe.

II

ASCH AS A NOVELIST AND SHORT-STORY WRITER

WITH this brief sketch of Sholom Asch the man, I shall turn to a
consideration of a few of his most important works. As Sir Walter
Raleigh, the eminent English critic, has said, the best way to form a
judgment of an author is to quote his good passages. Accordingly I
have been as liberal as space would allow in my insertion of
translated passages. The most recent works, mentioned in the early
part of this essay, I shall not treat, as it was impossible for me to
procure them at the time of writing. I shall take up each work
individually before making generalizations.

* * * * *

_DIE Juengsten_ is a novel by Asch in which he tries to portray the
character and the influences at work on the younger generation of Jews
in Russia. The plot can be simply set forth. The younger generation is
represented by five characters of three social classes. Mery Lipskaja
is the daughter of a well-to-do Jewish manufacturer--in other words,
she is of the middle or bourgeois class. She has completed her
_gymnasium_ (high-school) education and has absorbed the prevalent
ideas about women and emancipation, and a desire for higher education,
for a broader life, for St. Petersburg. Kowalski is an artist. He,
like Mery, is not interested in the class struggle; all that vitally
concerns him is his art and "living." David and Rahel Lazarus are the
children of a physician who is giving his life to the people of the
"Grube" or ghetto. They have grown up among the suppressed and
impoverished Jews and they are filled with the spirit of the
revolution; David actively and Rahel passively. Mischa, the cousin of
Mery, is a member of the middle class. He has become aware of the
conditions in the Grube and his struggle lies between his middle class
environmental influence, which includes his love for Mery, and his
desire to join the revolution.

At the beginning of the novel Mery has just returned from the
_gymnasium_. She is oppressed and dissatisfied with her provincial
surroundings and longs to go to the university at St. Petersburg.
Mischa, in love with Mery, has also just completed work at the
_gymnasium_, and they plan to go to St. Petersburg together. The
art