A Treasure Trove of Tales Collection Introduces Folklore to Modern Readers

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GABRIEL'S PLACE Jewish Mystical Tales Selected and retold by Howard Schwartz 414 pages, Oxford, $27.50

SOME CLASSICS, like Thoreau's "Walden" or Dickinson's poems, evolve only after a little aging or the discovery of an unpublished manuscript. Others, like "Gone With the Wind" or Haley's "Roots," strike immediate and lasting public acclaim.

"Gabriel's Palace" by Howard Schwartz may lie somewhere in between. It is a collection of 150 tales drawn from the long traditions of Jewish mysticism and retold by Schwartz in an incomparably beautiful style for modern readers. Those who have known Schwartz, a professor of English literature at the University of Missouri, …