I would like to acknowledge, with gratitude, a Fulbright grant for research in Portugal that helped to facilitate work on this essay. (N. from the A.)

It is difficult to accurately define the relationship between Don Quixote and The Travels of Benjamin the Third. Literary critics have alternatively labeled The Travels a «parody», «satire» and «rewriting» of Don Quixote. However, I believe Ruth Wisse evokes the relationship most accurately when she writes that the novel Don Quixote is a «frame device» to The Travels. Her term is thus inclusive of both the satiric and parodic uses made of Don Quixote in The Travels. See Ruth Wisse, The Schlemiel as Modern Hero (Chicago: U of Chicago Press, 1971), p. 32. (N. from the A.)

For the English rendition, see the wonderful new translation by Hillel Halkin in Tales of Mendele the Book Peddler: Fishke the Lame and Benjamin the Third, eds. Dan Miron and Ken Frieden (New York: Schocken Books, 1996), pp. 301-391.

For the Yiddish original see «Masoes Binyomin hashlishi» in Ale verk fun Mendele-Moykher Sforim, ed. N. Mayzl (Warsaw: Farlag Mendele, 1928), Vol. 9. (N. from the A.)

For a cogent analysis of Don Quixote's difficulty discerning fact from fiction see Ulrich Wicks, «Metafiction in Don Quixote: What is the Author Up To» in Approaches to Teaching Cervantes' Don Quixote, ed. Richard Bjornson (New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 1984), pp. 69-76. (N. from the A.)

For the finest analysis of Abramovitsh's use of Mendele as a narrative device, see Dan Miron, A Traveler Disguised: A Study in the Rise of Modern Yiddish Fiction in the Nineteenth Century (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1996), Chapters 4-7. (N. from the A.)

For Abramovitsh's greatest picaresque novel see Dos kleyne mentshele in Gezamlte verk fun Mendele Moykher-Sforim, Volume 3, eds. A. Gurshteyn, M. Viner, and Y. Nusinov (Moscow: Farlag Emes, 1935-1940). For the English version see The Parasite, trans. Gerald Stillman (New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1956). (N. from the A.)

Although there has been much analysis of The Travels of Benjamin the Third, little has focused specifically on its parallels with Don Quixote. The most thorough comparison remains Shmuel Niger's analysis in Mendele Moykher-Sforim: zayn lebn, zayne gezelshaftlekhe un literarishe oyftuungen (Chicago: L. M. Stein, 1936), pp. 182-187. For other more limited comparisons see Ruth Wisse, The Schlemiel as Modern Hero (Chicago: U of Chicago Press, 1971), pp. 31-34; Ken Frieden, Classic Yiddish Fiction: Abramovitsh, Sholem Aleichem, and Peretz (NY: SUNY Press, 1995), pp. 83-84; Theodore Steinberg, Mendele Mocher Seforim (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1977), pp. 87-89. (N. from the A.)

It was only with the massive pogroms of the 1880s that many Jewish writers and intellectuals began to focus on how anti-Semitism had caused Jewish isolation and poverty. For an impassioned yet convincing analysis of how the pogroms affected Jewish literary life, see Benjamin Harshav, The Meaning of Yiddish (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1990), pp. 119-138. (N. from the A.)

Although the ending does not state where they are heading, the reader knows Benjamin and Sendrel are continuing on their journey, since in the prologue Mendele discusses the eventual successful completion of the expedition. See pp. 301-304. (N. from the A.)

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Sobre Juan de Cervantes hay dos estudios parciales de Manuel Serrano y Sanz, y un artículo vetusto de Sigüenza, quien anuncia en él su libro. (N. del A.)