Alfred A. Knopf originally published the book in 1951.
The new text contains more than 70 pages of notes to explain the novel’s allusions to everything from the Zohar, the classic text of the Kabbalah, to the English writer John Milton.
One of Canada’s largest scholarly publishers, the University of Toronto Press, is offering the edition as the seventh in a series of eight volumes of works by the legendary Montreal poet, essayist and novelist, who died in 1972.
Many Canadian Jews feel an allegiance to “The Second Scroll” that borders on reverence.
“If I was going to a desert island, for sure I’d take ‘The Second Scroll’ with me,” says Dr. Shel Krakofsky, a Canadian poet.