Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

The Enigma of Isaac Babel
If nothing else, //The Enigma of Isaac Babel// is a well-titled essay collection.Since his execution by Stalin's thugs, Babel has now received his due recognition as one of the last century's greatest.Yet much about this author remains a mystery, owing largely to the NKVD's thoroughness in destroying his papers, but also to Babel's own desire to cultivate an air of mystery which now maddeningly obscures scholars wishing to understand his work.

This volume arises out of a Stanford conference that sought to "tease out something more about Isaac Babel."While the contributors are all eminent scholars, they achieve mixed results.On matters of biography, they too easily succumb to the temptation to read the author back into his work.Regarding his milieu and work they are more successful; several of the essays on his experiences as a journalist riding with the Soviet cavalry and the complex status of Jews in USSR glisten with insight.Those unfamiliar with Babel will get little from this work, for those who have reveled in his stories and wish to understand more, this book offers some insights.

Reviewed by Jordan Magill ... Read more

Product Description
A group of stories by Isaac Babel, in which he seeks to balance the image of Jewish violence against the violence done to Jews who are so Jewish that they cannot help but be "nonviolent". The collection includes the tales "Benya Krik" and "The Gangster". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

My Favorite Gangster and My Favorite Writer
Thanks to Isaac Babel,there isone city I'd care to see in Russia(Ukraine)-that would be Odessa.Odessa was where the great Babel was from and Odessa was also the turf of Benya Krik,who is my favorite character in the history of literature.To get a sense of Babel's scope,check out one of his anthologies;'Benya' is a great Babel compilation for anyone who wants to cut to the chase-and which includes Babel masterpieces such as 'The History
of My Dovecot' about a pogrom from from a kid's viewpoint.But my favorites are the Benya Krik stories,particulary 'The King' in which Benya and his boys prevent a pogrom from taking place at his sister's wedding in a quasi-religious sense because we know who did it indirectly-as if Benya-or God was responsible for burning down the police station.If we had read the Benya Krik stories in Hebrew School,I never would've dropped out-and it's no mystery why Stalin executed Babel. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Art of Concision
Isaac Bábel considered himself a master of silence. Cavalerie Rouge demonstrates his concise style, straight to the point, stopping when there was nothing else to say, which made him an extraordinary storyteller. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Linked stories describing warfare and life concretely.
Funny and cheerful, these stories of the gangsters and middlemen of Odessa are linked.When the adult Babel told stories of his childhood, the results were macabre.

Babel found himself as a young man in St. Petersburg without papers.He decided to go see Gorky.Gorky had tallness, thinness, and vigor.Babel was told by Maxim Gorky to get out in the world and look at people.Babel had been submitting stories to Gorky, an editor, and Gorky had rejected the stories, but had told him to keep on writing.

There are stories of the Red Cavalry.It was a case of manpower without food, blankets, and soap.Counter-revolutionaries imperiled the railroads.Women risked assault with their husbands absent.

The world pictured by Isaac Babel is an exciting one.Comrade Trotsky ordered the men not to chop up prisoners anymore.In the Polish campaign some turncoat Cossacks won a victory over the Sixth Division of the Cavalry.At Leszniow the front was held by infantry.The homemade infantry was a great help to the Red Cavalry. Afonka Bida waged a sort of one man war getting horses and other supplies from the peasants.He claimed a personal horse.

Vinogradov, division commissar, was to give a lecture to the Second Congress of the Cominterm.The narrator's division captured Beresteczko.When he received a cart he ceased to be a pariah among the Cossacks.The cart formed part of a triangle--killing, cart, blood.The cart had become a formidable instrument of mobile warfare.Machine guns were concealed on carts.Pugachev lauded a fallen fighter of the First Cavalry.

In Sokal there was a large square bounded by ancient synagogues.Orthodox Jews extolled the teachings of Rabbi Belz.Hasidic Jews followed the approach of the Rabbi of Gussyatin.

There can be no cavalry without horses.Spent horses were left and draft animals were taken from the village.Men die, a horse dies in dreadful fashion, and women are used.The dates of the gory Polish campaign in which Babel participated were 1920-1921.It cannot be said that Babel treats warfare in a sentimental fashion.

Following RED CAVALRY there is a a section called 'Afterward'.In Odessa during the famine the inmates of alms house were lucky.After the revolution they had jobs as grave diggers and cantors.Then the house was closed for repairs.Life is described here brilliantly, concretely, with specificity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

a carefully chosen collection - a gem for admirers of Isaac Babel
The short stories collected in this volume are the ones which were long forgotten, forbidden, published only once or never before their debut here. Nathalie Babel, the daughter of Isaac Babel, has chosen the stories and written and excellent introduction and background for each of them. The stories are superbly translated by Max Hayward, and Babel's exquisite, unique language requires great care...

There are samples of different types of writings: short stories complete in their form; excerpts from the diary written during the 1920 war with Poland, when Babel traveled with the Red Army; pieces of journalism critical towards the early Soviet system (especially moving for me); sketches and planned beginnings of the unwritten novels (my favorite - "The Jewess"); anegdotical Jewish tales, which gave the foundation for Babel's flag character, Benia Krik. The collection is varied and remarkably interesting in its variety. Babel' eye for observation is sharp as is his linguistic ability and together they form great literary achievements.

This collection is a good place to begin the acquaintance with Isaac Babel for those who do not know him, and a perfect compliment to his better known writings.

elegant reduction
"she said no more." "there was silence in the room." -"you must know everything"

the praiseworthiness of a collection of stories is contingent not upon the praiseworthiness of thewriter but the collector(s). how and what to collect. who to havetranslate. the collection in these regards is a followable one. it offers afair sampling of babel in different contexts in different pursuits inwriting.

the praiseworthiness of the author cannot be to do with thepraiseworthiness of a posthumous collection. the work is the work he filledhis time with. and he was good at filling his time this way.

thecollection is separated into sections specific to types of writings.

know this though simply: babel in "his notebook","diary", "observations on war," "notes on thestories" is the same babel who by virtue of his stinging brevity (aslap without words glows redder) and perspicacity brought his reader tothis page. if you know babel then further pleasingly with this book youshall. if you've yet to then from this begin to:

"'you never sayanything, grishchuk,' i said frantically. 'how do you expect me tounderstand, you tiresome fellow?' he was silent and turned away." ... Read more

Product Description
"The brilliant and elusive stories of one of the great prose masters of the twentieth century are systematically examines in this book. Focusing on Babel's development as a writer, it traces the important themes that run through his work, scrupulously analyzes his writing style, and places him in the context of the modern movement"--Dust Jacket. ... Read more

Product Description

Term paper due tomorrow? Need to cram for a test? Or just looking for the best information about a favorite literary work?

Turn to "Short Stories for Students" to get your research done in record time. Brought to you by Thomson Gale--the world's leading source of literary criticism and analysis--this e-doc contains: plot summary; character analysis; author biography; an overview of the story's themes, style, and historical context; a compendium of in-depth critical material; study questions; suggestions for further reading; and much more.

Why choose "Short Stories for Students"? Because no other source offers so much in such a compact package. Trust the experts: Thomson Gale--and "Short Stories for Students." ... Read more

Product Description
Follows the 1934 Russian edition, with censored sections restored except for the last five stories. "The End of the Old Folks Home" is from a collection published in 1932, "Through the Fanlight" was never published; "The Kiss" and "Line and Color" were taken from the French and "DiGrasso" has only appeared in an emigre magazine. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Midstream, published by Thomson Gale on January 1, 2006. The length of the article is 2276 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Plucking the heart out of Isaac Babel's mystery.(Review Essay)(Savage Shorthand: The Life and Death of Isaac Babel)(Book review)
Author: Sanford Pinsker
Publication: Midstream (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 52Issue: 1Page: 36(3)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Encyclopedia of Russian History, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 618 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Providing a comprehensive discussion of the people, politics, economics, religion, culture, and social systems of Russia, this work spans the time from the earliest beginnings of the Russian nation (among the ancient Eastern Slavic tribes) to the end of czarist Russia and on through the rise and fall of the Soviet Union. It provides the necessary information for readers to obtain a greater understanding of and appreciation for Russia in all of its many spheres. ... Read more