ABRAHAM MAPU (1808-1867) was one of the first, and finest, of the novelists to write in Hebrew. Heavily influenced by a wide range of sources, the Bible, the Romantic Novelists, and renewed pride in ancient Jewish history, his works recall the finest works of writers such as Flaubert and other great romantic novelists. His first novel, Ahavat Ziyyon (The Love of Zion), published in 1853, won immediate acclaim. Its sixteen editions attest to its continued popularity. This edition also features selections of Mapu's others novels, as well as an introduction to his life and work by David Patterson of Oxford University.