| Sumario: | Yankev Leshchinsky's booklet on Yitskhok Ber Levinzon and Yisroel Aksenfeld, two figures from the pre-classical period of Yiddish literature, focuses not on the literary quality of their work but on what their work reveals about early nineteenth century Jewish economic life and social relations in Eastern Europe generally and Ukraine specifically. After providing an overview of how changing class structures have influenced the Jewish mentality, Leshchinsky offers a periodization of Yiddish literature in which he associates literary periods with different levels of economic development. He then summarizes what key works by Levinzon and Aksenfeld tell us about Jewish economic life and social relations in the 1820s and 1830s. Leshchinsky supplements his discussion with excerpts from the works he discusses. An Introduction by one of the translators precedes the booklet, introducing the reader to Leshchinsky, Levinzon, Aksenfeld, and the booklet itself.
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