The Puttermesser Papers

204 Pages·2014·1.01 MB·English

by  Cynthia Ozick

THE PUTTERMESSER PAPERS
Fiction by Cynthia Ozick:
Foreign Bodies
Dictation
Heir to the Glimmering World
The Puttermesser Papers
The Shawl
The Messiah of Stockholm
The Cannibal Galaxy
Levitation: Five Fictions
Bloodshed and Three Novellas
The Pagan Rabbi and Other Stories
Trust

First published in the United States of America in 1997 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
This edition published in Great Britain in 2014 by Atlantic Books, an imprint of Atlantic Books Ltd.
Copyright © Cynthia Ozick, 1997
The moral right of Cynthia Ozick to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of
the author’s imagination and not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead,
events or localities, is entirely coincidental.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Paperback ISBN: 978 0 85789 979 8
E-Book ISBN: 978 0 85789 980 4
Printed in Great Britain Atlantic Books
An Imprint of Atlantic Books Ltd Ormond House
26–27 Boswell Street London WC1N 3JZ
www.atlantic-books.co.uk
FOR
Elaine, Esther,
Francine, Gloria, Helen,
Johanna, Lore,
Merrill, Norma, Sarah,
Susan, Susanne
Contents
Puttermesser: Her Work History, Her Ancestry, Her Afterlife
Chapter One
Puttermesser and Xanthippe
I. Puttermesser’s Brief Love Life, Her Troubles, Her Titles
II. Puttermesser’s Fall, and the History of the Genus Golem
III. The Golem Cooks, Cleans, and Shops
IV. Xanthippe At Work
V. WHY THE GOLEM WAS CREATED; Puttermesser’s Purpose
VI. Mayor Puttermesser
VII. Rappoport’s Return
VIII. Xanthippe Lovesick
IX. The Golem Destroys Her Maker
X. The Golem Snared
XI. The Golem Undone, and the Babbling of Rappoport
XII. Under the Flower Beds
Puttermesser Paired
I. An Age of Divorce
II. The Night Readers
III. The Unspeakable Joy
IV. The Awful Discrepancy
V. The Honeymoon
VI. The Marriage
Puttermesser and the Muscovite Cousin
I. History
II. A Joke out of Moscow
III. A Soviet Martian
IV. The Great Exposition
V. More History
VI. Interviews
VII. Another Interview
VIII. Entrepreneurs
IX. The Idealists
X. A Tea Party
XI. The Farewell
XII. Letters
Puttermesser in Paradise
Chapter One
Note on the Author
Flaubert does not build up his characters, as did Balzac, by
objective, external description; in fact, so careless is he of
their outward appearance that on one occasion he gives
Emma brown eyes; on another deep black eyes; and on
another blue eyes.
—A comment by Dr. Enid Starkie,
quoted (disapprovingly) in Flaubert’s
Parrot, by Julian Barnes