Yellow Street: A Novel in Five Scenes

This novel, written by the late wife of Nobel Prize winner Elias Canetti, who contributed the foreword, was originally serialized in 1932-1933sorry, i don't know whose change this was--supposed to be 1933?/eed in a leading Viennese newspaper, the Arbeiter Zeitung. It portrays the people of Yellow Street, the leather merchants' row``row'' to avoid repetition? in Vienna. ``It's a remarkable street. . . . All sorts of people live there, cripples, somnambulists, lunatics, the desperate and the smug.'' There is Runkel, the crippled woman who runs her shops with a tight fist; she is hated for her parsimony, but she wants to be recognized as human, not as a I tightened here. ok? aa/yes/pk monster. Herr Iger beats his wife and deprives her of food and clothing, yet is known publicly as a great philanthropist and a charmer of the ladies. Emilie, an unemployed servant girl, learns that she can improve her lot by feigning suicide by ok?/yes/pk throwing herself into the Danube. These and many other characters are created deftly and sparely; in a few lines Canetti tellstighter. ok?/yes/pk volumes about human nature. She provides a fascinating window on her era replete with vivid details of daily life, as well as an ageless story of the struggle to maintain dignity during hard times. (Apr.)