Transcriber’s Note Italic text displayed as: _italic_ TEMPTATIONS _A BOOK OF SHORT STORIES_ TEMPTATIONS _A BOOK OF SHORT STORIES_ BY DAVID PINSKI AUTHORISED TRANSLATION FROM THE YIDDISH BY DR. ISAAC GOLDBERG [Illustration: decoration] LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD. RUSKIN HOUSE, 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C. 1 _Copyright in U.S.A.; 1919, by Brentano’s_ _First published in Great Britain 1921_ CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION vii BERURIAH 3 THE TEMPTATIONS OF RABBI AKIBA 83 JOHANAN THE HIGH PRIEST 101 ZERUBBABEL 131 DRABKIN: A NOVELETTE OF PROLETARIAN LIFE 169 THE BLACK CAT 255 A TALE OF A HUNGRY MAN 277 IN THE STORM 313 INTRODUCTION The same traits that distinguish David Pinski as a playwright characterise him also as a writer of short fiction. The noted Yiddish author is concerned chiefly with the probing of the human soul,—not that intangible and inconsequential theme of so many vapourings, dubbed mystic and symbolistic by the literary labellers,—but the hidden mainspring that initiates, and often guides, our actions. Pinski seeks to penetrate into the secret of human motive. It is not enough for him to depict the deed; he would plumb, if possible, the genetic impulse. That is why, if he must be classified, one places him among the psychological realists. He is at his best faithful to both the inner and the outer life. Thus we find, in his numerous stories and plays, very little of the conventional heroism and villainism with which most authors are concerned, and very much of the deeply human at which the majority of authors shake their heads. This is not to say that Pinski’s work lacks heroic figures; on the contrary, in a measure it constitutes a series of noble and ennobling portraits, representing men and women who meet life face to face and are scorched by its flames. So, too, there are less inspiring personages who compromise with life and their better selves. And in the background lurks our common humanity, faintly quick with the potentialities of ignominy or greatness.