Babel: Collected Stories (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

by Isaac Babel (Author), Efraim Sicher (Contributor, Translator), David McDuff (Author) "Although our little town is not large, although its inhabitants are few, although Shyloyme had lived for sixty years in the town without a break,..." (more)
Key Phrases: public procurator, bast sandals, military commissar, Benya Krik, Papasha Krik, Auntie Pesya (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
He is a writer who stabs the mind and the heart and the inner eye with short, savage strokes. -- Richard Bernstein, New York Times --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Description
A newly translated collection of stories. His desire to remain faithful to his Jewish roots and yet to be free of them gives Babel a duality of vision, which infuses his work with a powerful energy, from the earliest tales.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (March 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140184627
• ISBN-13: 978-0140184624
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #787,419 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The excellence of understatement, January 14, 2001

By	"innocents" (Philadelphia, PA United States) - See all my reviews

I stumbled across Isaac Babel because of a single line quoted in Paul Johnson's "History of the Jews". And then I was forever hooked.

First, a caveat. Be sure you understand when reading Babel's short stories that you are not reading his autobiography or journal. He did in fact listen to our creative writing teachers; he wrote what he knew. He knew the Russian revolution. He knew the Cossacks. He knew war. He knew living inside and outside the pale. His world jumps off the page because he lived it first.

The stories contain autobiographical material, actively mixed with the yeast of fiction. Use this aspect of his writing to chase rabbits. Follow up this book with his biography or find out more about the Russian revolution. Both of those topics will make more sense after reading his collected stories.

As a writer, I stand in awe of Babel's stingy use of words. Some scenes are so hugely horrible that I would have been tempted to throw in appropriate adverbs and adjectives in an attempt to convince you, my reader, just how hugely horrible it really was. Babel simply tells the story, and you gasp when you are done, horrified when you peak through the keyhole (and I would have blasted a hole in the wall).

When you read Babel, you must be willing to go at the stories with an open mind, not expecting him to flatten the Commies, defend the Jews, or paint the picture the way you want him to. He will not do that, no matter how many times you try to make it so. You will hear no overtones of right or wrong, get no definitive answers about the people on either side of the Russian revolution.

For that, I am most grateful to Isaac Babel. Nothing about our world can be easily distilled into sharp black and white. His stories give us the real world in astounding color.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Contains a Masterpiece, June 19, 2000

By	R. Albin (Ann Arbor, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The Red Cavalry story sequence is one of the great works of 20th century literature. It is reportedly based on Babel's experience as a Commissar in the Red Army during the post-revolutionary invasion of Poland. Babel's autobiographical narrator reflects profound ambivalence. An urban Jew and intellectual serving with peasant Cossack soldiers whose conduct would have been normative during the 30 Years War, Babel's narrator exemplifies and documents the profound contradictions of the Russian Civil War and revolutionary effort. The stories contain multiple scenes of great power, horror, and punishing irony. Other reviewers, see below, have commented on the unpleasant nature of these stories. These reactions are a tribute to Babel's capacity as a writer. Why should we expect anything pleasant from this subject? This work is intended to be profoundly disturbing. Babel aimed to show clearly some of the horror of his time and did so in a way that no factual chronicler can equal.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Book, April 26, 2001

By	Frequent Reader (Setauket, NY USA) - See all my reviews

A superbly written insider's look at the Russian revolution. Babel can convey the horrors of war with very few words. I enjoyed the best his sarcastic treatement of the bombastic communist rhetoric in such stories as "Salt" and "Treason" (maybe because I was exposed to it myself at one time).