Here are some reviews of the first part of ‘Isaac Laquedem: A Tale of the Wandering Jew‘:
“The historical novel is our best means of time travel and the great masters of the form achieve escape velocity through rich descriptive passages that carry the reader to another time and place. Alexandre Dumas père may well be the most beloved writer of historical fiction, but the work he considered his most ambitious was never published in English in its full form. In Isaac Laquedem, Dumas reimagines the story of the immortal Wandering Jew to create a work that takes the reader to multiple pasts. Paul T.M. Jackson’s graceful and extremely readable translation allows new access to Dumas’ exciting and multi-layered retelling of the legend.”
“You’ve done a fantastic job. Having been a fan of the folktale of the Wandering Jew for some time now, I’d been eagerly awaiting your English translation and believe that the life you’ve breathed into the prose is beautiful. Even for what is only a prologue, it certainly fits the bill of what one conjures up when imagining a historical epic…As far as the contents go, I hadn’t considered to what extent religious redemption would fuel the wanderer, but it only makes too much sense that it would play a large one considering the impious crime the character is accused of in the myth. Once again, excellent work.”
“I just finished the Prologue, and I was completely captivated…You have achieved a balance between the language of Victorian England and that which flows smoothly for the modern reader. It still retains the aura of another time, but without sounding strange to read aloud. As for the story, I was drawn in from the beginning. The history, the details of the history, all the way to the description of the “large, grey slabs” that made up the Appian Way…I very much enjoyed the colorful descriptions of burial ceremonies and the detail accorded to the contents of the tombs. The historical anecdotes lent an air of intimacy to our travel, of knowing who came before us, and how in many ways man hasn’t changed much. But what I enjoyed most was the traveler’s interactions with others, particularly the archery contest. That was rich. And when the traveler meets with Pope Paul II, you can almost feel the pain enveloping the traveler…you have done a beautiful job translating this prologue.”
