Anyone attempting to present an image of the Jew in Polish narrative prose of the period 1822-63 has to consider, at the outset, factors that conditioned this image. First of all one must mention the social and psychological environment and the stereotype of the Jew which emerged from it. As Alexander Hertz recalls:

Hertz's comments apply to the stereotype, in other words to several clear and characteristic traits of the model which have both an emotional and cognitive character. Pierre Reboul introduced, in his work with the rather misleading title Le Mythe Anglais dans la Littirature Francaise sous la Restauration (Lille 1962), the similar concept of images illusoires. The title is misleading because in Reboul's work myth has nothing to do with the constructions of religious consciousness in primitive societies: like the stereotype, it is an idea for expressing ‘false consciousness’. Reboul, however, emphasized the important role of literature in the formation of the myth. ‘The leading and most important writers were always influenced by collective thoughts, although they sometimes escaped them and tried to shape them. The myth existed more vigorously among writers than among other people of other professions. ‘