Abraham Mapu

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Abraham Mapu (1808, Slobodka, Kaunas – 1867, Königsberg, Prussia) was a Lithuanian-born Hebrew novelist.

For many years he was an impoverished, itinerant schoolmaster. Mapu gained financial security when he was appointed teacher in a government school for Jewish children. Mapu is considered the creator of the Hebrew novel. Influenced by French Romanticism, he wrote heavily plotted novels about life in Ancient Israel, which he contrasted favorably with 19th century Jewish life. His style is fresh and poetic, almost Biblical in its simple grandeur.

He began work on the historical novel Ahavat Zion in 1830, completing it only in 1853.

[edit] Novels

• Ayit Zanua (1858) (The Hypocrite)
• Ahavat Zion (1853) (Amnon, Prince and Peasant as translated by F. Jaffe in 1887)

[edit] Commemorations

In the Kaunas Old Town and in Jerusalem, Israel there are streets bearing his name.Also There is also a well-known Israeli novel called, "The Children from Mapu Street" ("הילדים מרחוב מאפו").