"Amazing not only as literature but as biography."—Richard Bernstein, The New York Times
One of the great masterpieces of Russian literature, the Red Cavalry cycle retains today the shocking freshness that made Babel's reputation when the stories were first published in the 1920s. Using his own experiences as a journalist and propagandist with the Red Army during the war against Poland, Babel brings to life an astonishing cast of characters from the exuberant, violent era of early Soviet history: commissars and colonels, Cossacks and peasants, and among them the bespectacled, Jewish writer/intellectual, observing it all and trying to establish his role in the new Russia. Drawn from the acclaimed, award-winning Complete Works of Isaac Babel, this volume includes all of the Red Cavalry cycle; Babel's 1920 diary, from which the material for the fiction was drawn; and his preliminary sketches for the stories—the whole constituting a fascinating picture of a great writer turning life into art.Book Description
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Amazing not only as literature but as biography. -- Richard Bernstein, New York Times
Marvelously subtle, tragic, and often comic. -- James Wood, The New Republic
Marvelously subtle, tragic, and often comic. -- James Wood, The New Republic
About the Author
Isaac Babel was a journalist, playwright, and short story writer, whose works include the Russian masterpieces Red Cavalry and The Odessa Tales. He was arrested and executed in a Soviet prison in 1940.
Nathalie Babel, his daughter, edited two other books of Babel's writing and is the author of Hugo and Dostoevsky.
Peter Constantine's most recent translations are Sophocles’ Theban Trilogy, The Essential Writings of Machiavelli, and The Bird is a Raven by Benjamin Lebert, which was awarded the Helen und Kurt Wolff Translation Prize. He was awarded the PEN Translation Prize for Six Early Stories by Thomas Mann, and the National Translation Award for The Undiscovered Chekhov: Thirty-Eight New Stories. His translation of the complete works of Isaac Babel received the Koret Jewish Literature Award and a National Jewish Book Award citation. He has recently translated Gogol’s Taras Bulba, Tolstoy’s The Cossacks, and Voltaire’s Candide for Modern Library. He was one of the editors for A Century of Greek Poetry: 1900-2000, and is a senior editor at Conjunctions.
Michael Dirda, who won a Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism at the Washington Post Book World, is the author of An Open Book, Bound to Please, and Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Nathalie Babel, his daughter, edited two other books of Babel's writing and is the author of Hugo and Dostoevsky.
Peter Constantine's most recent translations are Sophocles’ Theban Trilogy, The Essential Writings of Machiavelli, and The Bird is a Raven by Benjamin Lebert, which was awarded the Helen und Kurt Wolff Translation Prize. He was awarded the PEN Translation Prize for Six Early Stories by Thomas Mann, and the National Translation Award for The Undiscovered Chekhov: Thirty-Eight New Stories. His translation of the complete works of Isaac Babel received the Koret Jewish Literature Award and a National Jewish Book Award citation. He has recently translated Gogol’s Taras Bulba, Tolstoy’s The Cossacks, and Voltaire’s Candide for Modern Library. He was one of the editors for A Century of Greek Poetry: 1900-2000, and is a senior editor at Conjunctions.
Michael Dirda, who won a Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism at the Washington Post Book World, is the author of An Open Book, Bound to Please, and Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent read.,
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This review is from: Red Cavalry (Paperback)
Babel's Red Cavalry is a remarkably candid look at a little known subject of the Bolshevik's effort to export their revolution to Europe via Poland. His writing is very much in the style of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy in that he cuts through to the heart of the matter in a very subtle manner, and vividly describes the drive, actions, and sufferings of those involved in this conflict.
0 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
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Mind blowing (but grim),
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Babel's writing is like no others. His stories are like viewing war through a flipbook.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
"The orange sun is rolling across the sky like a severed head." Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
vehicular driver, military commissar, threshing shed, transport carts, cavalry transport, divisional chief, ten versts, ambulance cart, division commander, been billeted, first cart, ideological education Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Red Cavalry, Sixth Cavalry Division, Red Army, Soviet Union, Sixth Division, Second Brigade, Isaac Babel, Konstantin Karlovich, Revolutionary Tribunal, Elizaveta Alekseyevna, First Brigade, Pan Apolek, Third Brigade, Revolutionary Committee, First Squadron, Mother of God, Jesus Christ, Kuban Cossacks, Semyon Timofeyich, Twelfth Army, Fourteenth Division, Pani Eliza, Afonka Bida, Evdokiya Fyodorovna, General Budyonny New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
"The orange sun is rolling across the sky like a severed head." Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
vehicular driver, military commissar, threshing shed, transport carts, cavalry transport, divisional chief, ten versts, ambulance cart, division commander, been billeted, first cart, ideological education Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Red Cavalry, Sixth Cavalry Division, Red Army, Soviet Union, Sixth Division, Second Brigade, Isaac Babel, Konstantin Karlovich, Revolutionary Tribunal, Elizaveta Alekseyevna, First Brigade, Pan Apolek, Third Brigade, Revolutionary Committee, First Squadron, Mother of God, Jesus Christ, Kuban Cossacks, Semyon Timofeyich, Twelfth Army, Fourteenth Division, Pani Eliza, Afonka Bida, Evdokiya Fyodorovna, General Budyonny New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 17
books:
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100
books
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- The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel by Isaac Babel in Back Matter
- Quo Vadis: A Narrative Of The Time Of Nero by Henryk Sienkiewicz on page 254
- Seven Samurai: The Ultimate Film Guide by Akira Kurosawa on page 9
- Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Isaevich Solzhenitsyn in Front Matter
- My Universities (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics ) by Maxim Gorky in Back Matter
See all 17 books this book cites
- Men without Women: Masculinity and Revolution in Russian Fiction, 1917–1929 by Eliot Borenstein on 43 pages
- Jews in Russian Literature after the October Revolution: Writers and Artists between Hope and Apostasy (Cambridge Studies in Russian Literature) by Efraim Sicher on 29 pages
- Babel: Collected Stories (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics) by Isaac Babel on 20 pages
- At His Side: The Last Years of Isaac Babel by A.N. Pirozhkova on 14 pages
- n+1, No. 2: Happiness by n+1 on 13 pages
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