The Story Archive

The Adventures of Menakhem-Mendl

Sholem Aleichem · 1892 CE · Novel · Yiddish · Victorian

A small-town husband goes to Odessa to make the family fortune and writes home about each new opening in turn: currency speculation, sugar futures, insurance, matchmaking, and finally writing. His wife answers from Kasrilevke with her mother's proverbs and orders to come home, and neither is ever seen outside the letters. Serialized from 1892 and added to for twenty years, it fixed the luftmentsh, the man who lives on air, as a type.

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Attributes

Genre
ComedySatire
Theme
Wealth & GreedHopeClass & InequalityAmbition & Hubris
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
EverymanWise Fool
Plot structure
EpistolaryEpisodicRise and Fall
Symbol / motif
The LetterThe CityGold / Treasure
Conflict
vs Societyvs Self
Mode / tone
ComicSatiricalIronic
Culture / tradition
Yiddish

Closest analogues