Israel Zangwill's novels exemplify the multiplicity of his concerns and the diversity of his career as a journalist, playwright, and writer of fiction as well as an activist on behalf of pacifism, feminism, and Jewish nationalism. Zangwill was born on 21 January 1864 in London to Jewish immigrants Moses and Ellen Marks Zangwill, from Latvia and Poland, respectively. Like many Jewish immigrants in Britain at that time, Moses Zangwill earned his living as an old-clothes peddler, traveling through the countryside. The family later moved to Bristol, where Zangwill received his early education. After the Zangwills settled in London, Israel became a pupil teacher at the Jews' Free School and attended London University, where he studied at night and in 1884 received a degree with honors in French, English, and mental and moral science.

By June 1888 Zangwill had resigned his teaching position, either because of his opposition to the free school's policy...