Now I'm wondering if there is any modern fiction dealing with the point of view of Jewish characters living in England in this time period. Because it seems like that would be an interesting thing to explore.
I know Walter Scott's Ivanhoe (which was written a few centuries later, but set in England a few centuries earlier than Merchant) has a sympathetic Jewish woman as a central character. And it doesn't end with forced conversion but with the hero and the woman realizing they can't be together because of their religious differences. There are still a lot of stereotypes by today's standards, I'm sure (I read it when I was a lot younger and more attuned to the adventure and romance than anything else), but I think that might be the first major treatment of the issue in English lit. Come to think of it, though, that book might be set before it was actually illegal to be Jewish in England. I know the Shakespeare bio Will in the World (which I believe is by a Jewish writer, though I'm blanking on his name) goes extensively into the status of Jews in Shakespeare's England and how this interacted with his work.
But going back to my original point, it would be interesting to see a historical novel that addressed the situation.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2010-06-21 02:45 pm (UTC)I know Walter Scott's Ivanhoe (which was written a few centuries later, but set in England a few centuries earlier than Merchant) has a sympathetic Jewish woman as a central character. And it doesn't end with forced conversion but with the hero and the woman realizing they can't be together because of their religious differences. There are still a lot of stereotypes by today's standards, I'm sure (I read it when I was a lot younger and more attuned to the adventure and romance than anything else), but I think that might be the first major treatment of the issue in English lit. Come to think of it, though, that book might be set before it was actually illegal to be Jewish in England. I know the Shakespeare bio Will in the World (which I believe is by a Jewish writer, though I'm blanking on his name) goes extensively into the status of Jews in Shakespeare's England and how this interacted with his work.
But going back to my original point, it would be interesting to see a historical novel that addressed the situation.