"Gimpel the Fool" (1953) is a short story by

Isaac Bashevis Singer Isaac Bashevis Singer ( yi, יצחק באַשעװיס זינגער; November 11, 1903 – July 24, 1991) was a Polish-born American Jewish writer who wrote and published first in Yiddish and later translated himself into English with the help ...

, translated into English by

Saul Bellow Saul Bellow (born Solomon Bellows; 10 July 1915 – 5 April 2005) was a Canadian-born American writer. For his literary work, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only wr ...

in 1953. It tells the story of Gimpel, a simple bread maker who is the butt of many of his town's jokes. It also gives its name to the collection first published in 1957.

David Roskies David G. Roskies (Yiddish: דוד ראָסקיס; born 1948, Montreal) is an internationally recognized Canadian literary scholar, cultural historian and author in the field of Yiddish literature and the culture of Ashkenazi Jews, Eastern European ...

has put forward the view that the story constitutes a modernist revision of a story by

Nachman of Bratslav Nachman of Breslov ( he, רַבִּי נַחְמָן מִבְּרֶסְלֶב ''Rabbī'' ''Naḥmān mīBreslev''), also known as Reb Nachman of Bratslav, Reb Nachman Breslover ( yi, רבי נחמן ברעסלאווער ''Rebe Nakhmen Breslover'' ...

Collection

The 1957 collection under this title contains the following stories: * ''Gimpel the Fool'' * ''The Gentleman from Cracow'' * ''The Wife Killer'' * ''By the Light of Memorial Candles'' * ''The Mirror'' * ''The Little Shoemakers'' - Tells the tale of a long line of modest shoemakers in

Frampol Frampol is a town in Poland, in Biłgoraj County, Lublin Voivodeship. It has 1,431 inhabitants (December 2021), and lies in eastern Lesser Poland, near the Roztocze Upland. Frampol is surrounded by the ''Szczebrzeszyn Landscape Park'' and the ...

. Focusing on one age in the line, this story tells the tale of Abba's 7 sons leaving the homeland and emigrating to America in a dynamic time. * ''Joy'' * ''From the Diary of One Not Born'' * ''The Old Man'' * ''Fire'' * ''The Unseen'' - About desires and how far a person is willing to go to get what they desire, even at the expense of others they care about.

Characters

Elka Elka, who is known as the town prostitute, marries Gimpel when he agrees to get the town to take up a collection to raise a dowry for her. She is five months pregnant by another man when they are married, but she tells Gimpel the child is his and, when it arrives four months after their marriage, that it is simply premature. Throughout the story Elka commits numerous infidelities and eventually has six children, none of whom are Gimpel's. On her deathbed she admits her infidelities to her husband and asks him to forgive her. The Spirit of Evil The devil appears to Gimpel the baker and tells him to urinate in the bread intended for the village in order to get revenge for the many injustices the villagers have forced him to endure over the years. He does so, but is scolded by the spirit of his deceased wife. He destroys the tainted bread and becomes a homeless wandering shoemaker; at night he talks with the spirit of Elka.

References

1953 short stories Short stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer 1957 short story collections Jewish American short story collections Works by Saul Bellow {{1950s-story-collection-stub