The Dybbuk, S. Ansky
The Dybbuk, S. Ansky
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The Dybbuk

Author: S. Ansky

Narrator: a full cast

Unabridged: 1 hr 35 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/16/2009

Synopsis

In the folklore of Eastern European Jewry, a dybbuk is a wandering soul that comes to rest in the body of a living person. In this case, the dybbuk is an impoverished student that possesses a young bride on her wedding day. She is taken to a great Chassidic rabbi for exorcism. But before he can expel the spirit, the sage must discover who the dybbuk was in life, why he has possessed the maiden, and most importantly, how to balance the scales of cosmic justice.Part folk tale, part love story, and part allegory, The Dybbuk recreates the atmosphere of a bygone era, with all its rich humor, music, folkways, magic, and humanity.This Audie Awardwinning production of the most revered drama in the Yiddish repertoire is the only sound recording of the play in the English language.

About S. Ansky

S. Ansky, Shloyme-Zanvel Rappaport (1863–1920), who wrote under the name Semyon Akimovich Ansky, was born in Belarus to a traditional, Yiddish-speaking Jewish family. He became a populist activist, ethnographer, and author of fiction, poetry, and drama in Yiddish and Russian. From 1911 to 1914, he traveled through villages as head of a Jewish ethnographic expedition. A story he heard during his researches became the foundation for his famous play, The Dybbuk.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Gary on September 02, 2019

A Dybbuk is a haunting and beautiful and haunting combination between a love story and a ghost story, growing out of the tradition of Yiddish theatre. The main story revolves around a young rabbinical student, Channon, whose beloved and promised bride, Leah, is denied to him, because of his poverty.......more

Goodreads review by Kressel on August 17, 2018

I read this play because I was curious as to how literature embraces Jewish mystical concepts, but it turned out that the author’s biography interested me more. He was raised religious in Eastern Europe, and it’s clear that he knew Hasidic history and thought. In the very first scene, the characters......more

Goodreads review by Margot on January 02, 2021

The Dybbuk is a Hasidic star-crossed love story with elements of mysticism. The dybbuk is a very interesting figure, a malicious possessing spirit and the play makes use of this motif. But it's also more than that. The story of the play, and more importantly its many stagings is very rich. Ansky had......more

Goodreads review by Sean on October 13, 2024

Utterly Ecstatic, Passionate, Erotic, Sacred, Stupefying. Up there with the greatest love stories of all time. The Sanctity of Sin.......more

Goodreads review by Jeffrey on October 21, 2019

Reading The Dybbuk in a second hardback printing was a revelation. Unlike with many modern editions, which leave photographs of how the play was staged out of the edition because of cost, this was very much a reader's rather than performer's edition of the play (think Samuel French for performers). T......more

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