Isaac Bashevis Singer's first collection of stories,Gimpel the Fool, is a landmark work that has attracted international acclaim since it was first published in 1957. In Saul Bellow's masterly translation, the title story follows the exploits of Gimpel, an ingenuous baker who is universally deceived but who declines to retaliate against his tormentors. Gimpel and the protagonists of the other stories in this volume all inhabit the distinctive preWorld War II ghettos of Poland and, beyond that, the larger world created by Singer's unforgettable prose. Isaac Bashevis Singer(1904-91) was the author of many novels, stories, children's books, and memoirs. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978. Singer's first collection of stories,Gimpel the Fool, is a landmark of world literature and attracted international attention when it was first published in 1957. The title story, translated by Saul Bellow, follows the exploits of Gimpel, an ingenuous baker, who is universally deceived but declines to retaliate. Other protagonists are not so innocent. Hodle, of "The Gentleman from Cracow," is wed to Ketev Mriri, Chief of the Devils, and Nathan, of "The Unseen," leaves his wife for a demon in the form of a young woman. Enlightened or condemned, all characters inhabit the pre-World War II ghettos of Poland, and take shape in Singer's distinctive prose. "When I first readGimpel the Fool. . . I felt not only that I was reading an extraordinarily beautiful and witty story, but that I was moving through as many historical levels as an archeologist at work . . . It is the integrity of the human imagination that Singer conveys so beautifully."Alfred Kazin,The New Leader "Singer is a genius. He has total command of his imagined world."Irving Howe,TheNewRepublic "A peerless storyteller, Singer restores the sheer enchantment with story, with outcome, with what-happens-next that has been denied most readers since their adolescence."David Boroff,Saturday Review