In the 1920s, when two of Feuchtwanger’s best-known books, “Jew Süss” (“Power”) and “Ugly Duchess,” were first translated into English, they created a huge stir in both England and America. Feuchtwanger was praised by all of the critics as the maestro of the historical novel—equal to Dumas and Scott but written with modern psychology. In the novel “Jew Süss,” which is set in an era when Germany was made up of multiple autonomous republics that were fractured, an identity dilemma is explored. The protagonist seeks to deny his Jewish origin in order to obtain social power and blend in with German culture.
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