First published in 1957 by Noonday Press, Isaac Bashevis Singer’s original collection of stories, Gimpel the Fool, is a landmark work that has attracted international acclaim. The title story follows the exploits of Gimpel, an ingenuous baker who is universally deceived but who declines to retaliate against his tormentors. Gimpel and the protagonists of the other stories all inhabit the distinctive pre–World War II shtetls of Poland and, beyond that, the larger world created by Singer’s unforgettable prose.