1. Georges Van Den Abbeele, who examines the “economy of travel,” writes: “Home, the very antithesis of travel, is the concept through which the voyage is “oikonomized” into a commonplace. … The positing of a point we can call home can only occur retroactively. The concept of a home is needed…only after the home has already been left behind.” See Van den Abbeele, Georges, Travel as Metaphor from Montaigne to Rousseau (Minneapolis and Oxford: University of Minnesota Press, 1992)Google Scholar, xviii. Hannah Naveh writes that the travel “deepens the understanding of the notion of ‘home' by exposing the relativity and the fluidity of its meaning.” See Naveh, Hannah, Nos‘im ve-nos‘ot: sipurei mas‘a ba-sifrut ha-‘ivrit ha-ḥadashah (Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense Publishing House, 2002)Google Scholar, 10.

2. Baruch Kurzweil noted that “Ve-haya he-‘akov le-mishor” was Agnon's first treatment of the theme of delayed return, which would recur frequently in a variety of ways throughout his entire oeuvre Kurzweil, Baruch, Massot ‘al sipurei SH.Y. ‘Agnon, (Jerusalem and Tel Aviv: Schocken, 1962)Google Scholar, 28.

3. The return of Odysseus, after twenty years' absence, brings about his reunion with his wife Penelope, who remained faithful to him all that time, declining her suitors with all kinds of clever excuses. Odysseus's return home, then, is complete and joyful.

4. Landau, Luis, “Bein maup'assan le-‘Agnon: min ‘ha-shivah’ ‘ad ‘ve- haya he-‘akov le-mishor’” ‘Alei-Siaḥ 10–11 (1981): 109Google Scholar. For additional examples, see Landau, Luis, “Mekorot u-pseudo-mekorot be-ve-hayah he-‘akov le-mishor le-SH.Y. ‘Agnon” Hasifrut 26 (1978): 95–96Google Scholar n. 3; and Shaked, Gershon, Mendele, Lefanav ve-’aḥarav (Jerusalem: The Hebrew University; Magnes Press, 2005)Google Scholar, 170 n. 4.

5. See Van Den Abbeele, Travel as Metaphor, xix.

6. See Shaked, Gershon, ’Amanut ha-sipur shel ‘Agnon (Merḥavya and Tel Aviv: Sifriyat Po‘alim, 1973), 178–179Google Scholar. The expression “to grind for another” is a euphemism for a woman's sexual relations with a man who is not her husband (from Job 31: 10).

7. See Kurzweil, Baruch, “Dyokano shel ha-yehudi ha-ma‘aravi ba-sifrut ha-‘ivrit,” in Perakim mimorashtah shel yahadut Germanyah, eds. Tarshish, Aaron and Ginat, Yoḥanan (Jerusalem: The Leo Beck Institute; ha-kibbutz ha-meuḥad, 1975)Google Scholar, 180.

8. See Kurzweil, “Dyokano shel ha-yehudi ha-ma‘aravi,” 181.

9. See Shavit, Uzi, “‘Me‘uvat lo yukhal litkon’: ‘al ‘Ferenheim’ le-SH.Y. ‘Agnon,” Moznayim 49 (1979): 127–133Google Scholar. Later in his discussion Shavit points out dissimilar narrative situations in “Fernheim” and other works he mentions in that group, to refute claims of their similarity.

10. See Landau, “Bein maup'assan le-‘Agnon,” 109.

11. Naveh, Nos‘im ve-nos‘ot, 126.

12. For an overview of novella theory, see, for instance: Polheim, Karl Konrad, Novellentheorie und Novellenforschung Ein forschungbericht 1945–1964 (Stuttgart: J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1965)Google Scholar. For an overview of the novella's development see Clements, Robert J. and Gibaldi, Joseph, Anatomy of the Novella: The European Tale Collection from Boccaccio and Chaucer to Cervantes (New York: New York University Press, 1977)Google Scholar. In Hebrew, Einat Baram Eshel surveyed and described the development of novella theory in the first chapter of her book Bein ha-mish‘ol le-derekh ha-melekh: li-feriḥatah shel ha-novelah ha-‘ivrit bereshit ha-me‘ah ha-‘esrim (Jerusalem: The Hebrew University; Magnes Press, 2001)Google Scholar. For an example of a critical study which does not automatically subscribe to the theoretical framework of earlier novella theorists, see Ellis, John M., Narration in the German Novelle: Theory and Interpretation (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1974)Google Scholar.

13. See Leibowitz, Judith, Narrative Purpose in the Novella (The Hague: Mouton, 1974)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14. See Leibowitz, Narrative Purpose in the Novella, 16, 20–50.

15. Not all agree that the novella form has a fixed length: “Basically, the Novelle is a fictional narrative of indeterminate length (a few pages to two or three hundred),” Cuddon, J. A., Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory (London: Penguin Books, 1987)Google Scholar, 641.

16. See Baram Eshel, Bein ha-mish‘ol le-derekh ha-melekh, 38.

17. See the translated citation of Tieck in Bennett, Edwin K., A History of the German Novelle (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970)Google Scholar, 11. See also Bennett's remarks on 12.

18. See the translated citation of Heyse in Bennett, A History of the German Novelle, 13. See also Bennett's related discussion, 13–16.

19. See Bennett, A History of the German Novelle, 18.

20. Agnon got the idea for “Ve-haya he-‘akov le-mishor” from Hasidic sources. See Landau, “Mekorot u-pseudo-mekorot,” 95–96. The story has several versions two of which are cited in Landau's article. In Landau's opinion, the target audience of devout Jews “were attracted by its conflicting tendencies: a) attraction to the dark, terrible things in life; b) a desire for confirmation of their faith” (emphasis added). Those dark terrible things in life are the very extraordinary events that are typical of the novella.

21. Goethe defined the Novelle as follows: “What else is a Novelle about but an event which is unheard of but has taken place?” see Cuddon, Dictionary of Literary Terms, 642.

22. See Agnon, S. Y., Kol sipurav shel Shmu'el Yosef ‘Agnon, vol. 2 (Jerusalem and Tel Aviv: Schocken, 1964)Google Scholar, 96.

23. Three more examples: we are told that every year Menashe Ḥayim would give the grave keeper a pair of undergarments, and his wife, Kreindl Tcharni, “would generously add wine to the synagogue, for the Sabbath Kiddush and Havdalah, and also diapers for the babies of the mourning women at the cemetery” (Heb., 1964, 169.) Kreindl Tcharni goes to borrow some flour from her neighbor, and is told: “My dear, do bake even for two Menashe Ḥayims, and God willing, you will soon be baking at home for a circumcision ceremony” (Heb., 1964, 82). The reference to babies foreshadows the ending, while the reference to “two Menashe Ḥayims” and the circumcision ceremony encapsulates the tragic plot. The third example—as Menashe Ḥayim weighs his decision to return home—he thinks: “Yet it is better for Kreindl Tcharni to live her life in accordance with Judaism . . ., and I am already lost” (Heb., 1964, 117). This is precisely what transpires: Kreindl Tcharni is accepted by the community following Jewish law, while Menashe Ḥayim is indeed lost. Some of the hints were mentioned by Kurzweil in Massot ‘al sipurei SH.Y. ‘Agnon and by Bahat, Ya‘akov, SH.Y. ‘Agnon ve-Ḥ hazaz: ‘iyuney mikra (Haifa: Sefarim Yuval, 1969)Google Scholar. Arnold Band reads these signs as part of the symbolic technique used in this work. Although he does not refer explicitly to the Novella's features he maintains that “the sensitive reader cannot escape the fact that behind the surface of realistic details there lies another world of meanings and attached sentiments which both fund back into the realistic surface and charge it with new emotion and unity” see Band, Arnold, Nostalgia and Nightmare: A Study in the Fiction of S. Y. Agnon (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968)Google Scholar, 90.

24. See Agnon, S. Y., “Fernheim,” in Twenty-One Stories, trans. Segal, David S., ed. Glatzer, Nahum N. (New York: Schocken Books, 1970)Google Scholar, 236.

25. Uzi Shavit observes: “It seems that Fernheim is haunted by the feeling that the past cannot be undone, after his return from captivity, a feeling of ‘my worst fears have come true'. . . his struggle to get Inge back is really just for show; in actual fact, he is well aware all along of his real situation.” See Shavit, “‘Me‘uvat lo yukhal litkon,’” 132. Fernheim, with his eyes wide open, contrasts with Menashe Ḥayim's willed blindness, with this point becoming another genre-related difference between the two works.

26. See Agnon, “Fernheim,” 244.

27. See Halevi-Zwick, Judith, ‘Agnon be-ma‘aglotav: ‘iyunim be-’omanut ha-sipur shel ‘Agnon (Tel Aviv: Papyrus; Tel Aviv University, 1989)Google Scholar, 89.

28. See Emunah Yaron, “He‘arot ’aḥadot le-hemshekho shel ‘Fernheim,’” Haaretz, February 25, 1972, 16.

29. Agnon's use of doubles in his writing, “Fernheim” included, has been noted by Ben-Dov, Nitza “Sipur shel Ḥayim ve-sipur shel sipurim: diun be-sipur ‘Fernheim’ le-SH.Y. ‘Agnon,” ‘Iton 77, no. 141 (1991): 30–31Google Scholar, 50; and Shaked, Mendele, Lefanav ve-’aḥarav, 169–202. However, they both regard Karl Neiss as Fernheim's double, not the other way around. Ben-Dov notes: “Karl Neiss is not necessarily Fernheim's rival—he is his mythic, mysterious double; like Odysseus, miracles happen and delayed returns end well in their territory,” Ben-Dov, “Sipur shel Ḥayim ve-sipur shel sipurim,” 51. Shaked writes: “Fernheim too has a double…Karl Neiss, who took his place with his wife. But when fortunes are reversed, and Fernheim returns from captivity, he finds himself locked out, and her family shun him, for in their view, the survivor, in this case the double (Neiss)—is the victor,” Shaked, Mendele, Lefanav ve-’aḥarav, 194.

30. See Agnon, “Fernheim,” 243.

31. At this turning-point a sudden change takes place in the character's situation or fortune (usually for the worse). Although sudden, the change is not arbitrary; it is causally linked to preceding events.

32. From a passage appearing only in the first edition of “Ve-haya he-‘akov le-mishor,” it emerges that Kreindl Tcharni's father married her off to Menashe Ḥayim only as the default option, so as not to let her marry the rich man's son, since the latter's family is tainted by the shadow of incest. So here too “the match was no match at all” from the outset. The mean-spirited in Jazlovitz said of Menashe Ḥayim and Kreindl Tcharni “that theirs was an unnatural match,” Landau, “Mekorot u-pseudo-mekorot,” 99–100.

33. See Bennett, A History of the German Novelle, 5.

34. See Bennett, A History of the German Novelle, 18.

35. On “Ve-haya he-‘akov le-mishor” as Jewish tragedy see Halperin, Sarah, “Le ’ofyah ha-yehudi shel ha-tragedyah ‘ve-haya he-‘akov le-mishor’” Alei-Siaḥ 10–11 (1981): 101–108Google Scholar, and also Hirschfeld, Ariel, Likro ’et SH.Y. ‘Agnon (Tel Aviv: Aḥuzat Bayit, 2011), 165–199Google Scholar. Hirschfeld writes: “The tragedy unfolding before our eyes is a Jewish tragedy. Jewish, since it is a trial of faith—the faith of the lonely man, which gradually reveals itself to be an act of courage, understood by no Divine Presence. This faith takes place in total solitude, meeting with no response or reward,” 187.

36. See, for instance, Friedman, Norman, “Recent Short Story Theories: Problems in Definition” in Short Story Theory at a Crossroads, eds. Lohafer, Susan and Clary, Jo Ellyn (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989)Google Scholar, 24. He mentions that some new approaches follow two of Poe's principles. The first is the desired singleness of effect and the second “is that if everything is so constructed to answer to the end, then the end controls the beginning and the middle” (emphasis added). See also Lohafer, Susan, Coming to Terms with the Short Story (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1983)Google Scholar, 94: “Short fiction, it has been said, is the most 'end-conscious' of forms. Readers of short fiction are the most 'end-conscious' of readers.”

37. See Agnon, “Fernheim,” 237.

38. Agnon, “Fernheim,” 240.

39. Agnon, “Fernheim,” 242.

40. Agnon, “Fernheim,” 245.

41. Agnon, “Fernheim,” 247.

42. See Yaron, “He‘arot ’aḥadot le-hemshekho shel ‘Fernheim.’”

43. On the tragic nature of Menashe Ḥayim's dilemma and decision, see Landau, “Mekorot u-pseudo-mekorot,” 99. Ziva Shamir observes that the kind of choice made by Menashe Ḥayim can only be made by a modern person, motivated by modern values, such as love and humanism, while ignoring religious concepts such as “Divine Providence.” Moreover, she regards him as no less than “Promethean rebel,” with no limits or limitations in dealing with the dilemma he faces. Her conclusion: “This is no tale of resignation but a story of rebellion against God.” See Shamir, Ziva, Shai ‘olamot: ribui panim be-yeẓirat ‘Agnon (Safra: Ha-kibbutz ha-meuḥad, 2010)Google Scholar, 63.

44. Interestingly, in the two works discussed here, the delayed return is tied up with a child. Kreindl Tcharni's baby is the decisive factor in Menashe Ḥayim's decision not to declare himself and show that he is alive and well after all—this is his own final step in the dissolution of their marriage. This should be compared to Fernheim and Inge's dead baby, mentioned in the opening scene of “Fernheim.” This dead baby signifies the breaking of the last thread of their ties.

45. See Bennett, A History of the German Novelle, 2.