SOURCE: Fisch, Harold. “The Twentieth Century.” In The Dual Image: The Figure of the Jew in English and American Literature, pp. 80-97. New York: Ktav Publishing House, Inc., 1971.

In the following excerpt, Fisch explores the treatment of Jewish characters in various twentieth-century literary works and suggests that in these works the Jew emerges as “a symbol of the moral victory of the human spirit.”

Liberals and Reactionaries

When we turn to the twentieth century we note that in spite of the generally soberer presentation of Jews the mythological outline remains. In E. M. Forster's early novel, The Longest Journey (1907), the Jewish Hegelian philosopher from Cambridge, Stewart Ansell performs a task in relation to the hero Rickie similar to that of Deronda in relation to Gwendolen in George Eliot's novel. He is the cultural and moral catalyst. He exposes the emptiness and triviality of the English upper class, its...