SOURCE: "The Secular Trinity of a Lonely Millionaire: Language, Sex, and Power in 'The Rise of David Levinsky,'" in Studies in American Jewish Literature, edited by Daniel Walden, Vol. 2, 1982, pp. 20-35.

In the following essay, Marovitz examines what he considers Cahan's major themes in The Rise of David Levinsky.

When Abraham Cahan sailed from Liverpool in late May 1882, his knowledge of English was yet to be acquired, but by the time he had docked in Philadelphia less than two weeks later, he was already acting as translator, dictionary in hand, for other European immigrants like himself. Cahan quickly learned the value of linguistic facility, not in one language and not in two but in as many tongues as were useful in promoting his aims. When still an eight-year-old child in Vilna, he tells us in Bleter fun Mein Leben (Leaves from My Life), he paid a little...