Glückel of Hameln—or as she would likely have called herself, Glikl bas Judah Leib—was a German Jewish woman who over the course of some thirty years in the late 17th and early 18th centuries wrote a series of short interconnected memoirs in Yiddish which recount her life, her two marriages, and raising 14 children (two of whom died young).

In many ways reviewing this as a book is a tricky thing to do. Glückel wrote for her children, to inform them about their family's history and to pass on moral lessons to them. While it's roughly chronological, it's not well-organized; Glückel meanders, and the enormous number of people mentioned are difficult to keep straight. However, it's very clearly written in her voice, and as a text is enormously useful for a social and cultural history of German Jewish communities during the early modern period.

I'm not able to judge the quality of Beth-Zion Abrahams' translation, but I do think that the introduction and the accompanying scholarly apparatus/notes are showing their age. (This edition was originally published in the early '60s.) An updated version, which takes into account advances in Jewish and women's history over the past 40 years or so would be very welcome. ( )