Review of Hayyim Pesah and Eli Yassif, The Knight, the Demon and the Virgin: An Anthology of Hebrew Stories from the Middle Ages

In the currently charged world of Israeli public opinion, the publication of this book is a political act. The editors have crammed well known medieval Hebrew texts into a cheap, paperback format, using paper the acidity of which is more fitting for traditional "folk books" than for typical scholarly tomes designed for the library shelf. In this book readers will encounter the classics of Jewish folk literature--such as "The Story of the Jerusalemite," "Joseph Della Reina," and principle texts from Hebrew medieval romance literature such as "The Alexander Romance," a selection of "Tales of Sendebar," and a "Hebrew Arthurian Romance." A few texts such as "The Story of a Rich Man and a Beautiful Woman" and "The Defamed Innocent Woman" come from the famous manuscript OR. 135 in the Bodleian Library of Oxford--a manuscript Eli Yassif continues to study.