“The Jew” – Early Antisemitic Publication – Stuttgart, 1839

“The Jew” – Early Antisemitic Publication – Stuttgart, 1839

Der Jude: A German Social Commentary from the First Half of the Fifteenth Century – Antisemitic publication in the form of a novel by Carl Spindler. Stuttgart, 1838–1839 (both parts in one volume) – Second edition.

Spindler was a popular 19th-century German author who wrote “moral-historical” novels (Sittengemälde) set in past eras, often featuring numerous characters, dramatic conflicts, and vivid depictions of tensions between different societies. The novel Der Jude is set in the first half of the 15th century and attempts to portray the figure of a Jew in this period within a Christian European Catholic society, around themes of crime, suspicion, libels, local power struggles, and religious intolerance. The book employs clichés and stereotypical representations of Jews as they appeared in German romantic-historical literature of the time, depicting the Jew as an outsider, a shrewd and exploitative merchant, a schemer, or someone living on the margins of society. The novel was considered a bestseller in its day, reprinted in many editions and translated into several languages, and is part of a wave of German novels that made use of the stereotypical Jewish character. This is a fictional literary work, and the way Jews are portrayed in it reflects 19th-century patterns of representation. The book was first published in the 1830s; the edition before us is the second edition.

Rare. Only a few copies listed in the WorldCat global library catalog.

[2], 244 pages. Original binding. Leather spine. Gilt edges. Good condition.