Prologue : finally out in the open -- Abandoned wives in Jewish family law : an introduction to the Agune -- Doubly exiled in Germany : abandoned wives in Glikl Hamel's Memoirs and Solomon Maimon's Autobiography -- The victims of adventure : abandoned wives in Abramovitsh's Benjamin the Third and Sholem Aleykhem's Menakhem-Mendl -- Agunes disappearing in "a gallery of vanished husbands" : retrieving the voices of the abandoned women and children -- An autobiography of turmoil : abandoned mother, abandoned daughter -- Epilogue
Summary
Explores the problem of abandoned Jewish wives, or agunes ("chained wives") - women who under Jewish law could not obtain a divorce and of the men who deserted them. This book also explores representations of abandoned wives while tracing the demographic movements of Jews in the West. It describes the dynamics of power between men and women
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 187-198) and index
