Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Tiffany Vergon, Blain Nelson and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. THE RENASCENCE OF HEBREW LITERATURE (1743-1885) BY NAHUM SLOUSCHZ _Translated from the French_ * * * * * TRANSLATOR'S NOTE The modern chapter in the history of Hebrew literature herewith presented to English readers was written by Dr. Nahum Slouschz as his thesis for the doctorate at the University of Paris, and published in book form in 1902. A few years later (1906-1907), the author himself put his Essay into Hebrew, and it was brought out as a publication of the _Tushiyah_, under the title _Korot ha-Safrut ha-'Ibrit ha- Hadashah_. The Hebrew is not, however, a mere translation of the French book. The material in the latter was revised and extended, and the presentation was considerably changed, in view of the different attitude toward the subject naturally taken by Hebrew readers, as compared with a Western public, Jewish or non-Jewish. The present English translation, which has had the benefit of the author's revision, purports to be a rendition from the French. But the Hebrew recasting of the book has been consulted at almost every point, and the Hebrew works quoted by Dr. Slouschz were resorted to directly, though, as far as seemed practicable, the translator paid regard to the author's conception and Occidentalization of the Hebrew passages revealed in his translation of them into French. HENRIETTA SZOLD. * * * * * CONTENTS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I In Italy--Moses Hayyim Luzzatto CHAPTER II In Germany--The Meassefim CHAPTER III In Poland and Austria--The Galician School CHAPTER IV In Lithuania--Humanism in Russia CHAPTER V The Romantic Movement--Abraham Mapu CHAPTER VI The Emancipation Movement--The Realists CHAPTER VII The Conflict with Rabbinism--Judah Leon Gordon CHAPTER VIII Reformers and Conservatives--The Two Extremes CHAPTER IX The National Progressive Movement--Perez Smolenskin CHAPTER X The Contributors to _Ha-Shahar_ CHAPTER XI The Novels of Smolenskin CHAPTER XII Contemporaneous Literature CONCLUSION INDEX * * * * * INTRODUCTION