Fagin the Jew

"Fagin the Jew" is the title of a graphic novel by Will Eisner (ISBN 0-385-51009-8).

In this book, Eisner retells the story of Fagin from Charles Dickens's "Oliver Twist" from Fagin's point of view. Eisner portrays Fagin as a distressed and complex character, and tells the story of his life and his place in the Ashkenazic community of London in the first person, with many illustrations. The book was written in response to Eisner's belief that much classic literature contains anti-Semitic stereotypes, including Dickens's portrayal of Fagin. Eisner has cast the story in the form of an interview between Fagin and Dickens, on the night before Fagin is to be hanged, in which Fagin tells his life story and pleads for a more understanding portrayal by Dickens.

The book was published by Doubleday in 2003.

External links

* [http://www.randomhouse.com/doubleday/graphicnovels/fagin.html Publisher's site]
* [http://www.willeisner.com/ Author's official site]
* [http://www.artbomb.net/detail.jsp?gid=11&tid=450 review by Adi Tantimedh]
* [http://www.time.com/time/columnist/printout/0,8816,488263,00.html interview with Eisner about the book by TIME.comix]
* [http://www.wymaninstitute.org/news/2003-12-02-update.php Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies newsletter, December 2003] (included brief discussion of "Fagin the Jew")
* [http://www.cjnews.com/viewarticle.asp?id=4264&s=1 "Eisner pioneered the adult graphic novel" by Shlomo Schwartzberg from the "Canadian Jewish News", September 2004]