Creator Bio
Auguste Widal (Daniel Stauben)
1822–1875
Auguste Widal’s fictional accounts of trips to his native Alsace are early French examples of the immensely popular genre of “ghetto fiction.” His picturesque descriptions of the customs and traditions of small-town Alsatian Jews helped popularize ghetto nostalgia, as did his translations of the works of his Czech contemporary Leopold Kompert. A classicist, Widal wrote under the pseudonym Daniel Stauben, perhaps to preserve his somewhat precarious position as one of the few Jews teaching in French universities at this time. In 1873 he was appointed inspector general for French primary and secondary schools.
Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator
Primary Source
Scenes of Jewish Life in Alsace
After an absence of many years, I returned to Alsace in November 1856, in response to the invitation of an old friend. During this first and short visit, I was greatly moved in recovering all the…