Józef Ignacy Kraszewski

451, iv p. : ill. ; 27 cm.

John the Evangelist is the original Cartaphilus, but he is soon absorbed by the true Wandering Jew, who was once Isaac, the Captain in the Army of Pontius Pilate. This Wandering Jew is seeking neither Christ nor Death, but sensation in the form of sexual enjoyment: "unendurable pleasure indefinitely prolonged". The continual and continuous love affairs in which the Wandering Jew indulges are all with the same woman, the Wandering Jewess, in whatever guise she may appear. Some of the historical figures encountered are Charlemagne, Columbus, Luther, Spinoza, Rousseau, Frederick the Great...but others are more exotic personalities, such as Don Juan, Gilles du Retz, and near the end, Nietzsche. DOCTOR GEORGE KUMLER ANDERSON (1965)