The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel

by Isaac Babel, Nathalie Babel, Peter Constantine, Cynthia Ozick

Overview

"A book that will last, that you will reread all your life and then pass on to your grandchildren. Or ask to be buried with."—Michael Dirda, Washington Post

Following the historic publication of Norton's The Complete Works of Isaac Babel in the fall of 2001, The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel appears as the most authoritative and complete edition of his fiction ever published in paperback. Babel was best known for his mastery of the short story form—in which he ranks alongside Kafka and Hemingway—but his career was tragically cut short when he was murdered by Stalin's secret police. Edited by his daughter Nathalie Babel and translated by award-winner Peter Constantine, this paperback edition includes the stunning Red Cavalry Stories; The Odessa Tales, featuring the legendary gangster Benya Krik; and the tragic later stories, including "Guy de Maupassant." This will be the standard edition of Babel's stories for years to come.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393324020
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	10/17/2002
Pages:	512
Sales rank:	465,771
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.40(d)

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 is the director of the Program in Literary Translation at the University of Connecticut, the publisher of World Poetry Books, and editor-in-chief of the magazine New Poetry in Translation. A prolific translator from several modern and classical languages, Constantine was awarded the PEN Translation Prize for Six Early Stories by Thomas Mann, the National Translation Award for The Undiscovered Chekhov, the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize for his translation of The Bird Is a Raven by Benjamin Lebert, and the Koret Jewish Book Award and a National Jewish Book Award citation for The Complete Works of Isaac Babel.

Editorial Reviews

"A celebration of literary genius framed by twentieth-century tragedy…[Babel's stories] have an electrifying cumulative impact…He is a writer who stabs the mind and the heart and the inner eye with short, savage strokes."

New York Times - Richard Bernstein

"A triumph…Peter Constantine's translation is extraordinary."

The New Republic - James Wood

"[The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel] opened a door in my mind, and behind that door I found the room where I wanted to spend the rest of my life."

Paul Auster

"A monumental book."

Jonathan Rosen

[The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel] opened a door in my mind, and behind that door I found the room where I wanted to spend the rest of my life.--Paul Auster

A celebration of literary genius framed by twentieth-century tragedy...[Babel's stories] have an electrifying cumulative impact...He is a writer who stabs the mind and the heart and the inner eye with short, savage strokes.--Richard Bernstein "New York Times"

A monumental book.--Jonathan Rosen "New York Times Book Review"

A triumph...Peter Constantine's translation is extraordinary.--James Wood "The New Republic"

From the Publisher

A book that will last,that you will reread all your life and then pass on to your grandchildren. Or ask to be buried with.
—Washington Post

Michael Dirda

He is a writer who stabs the mind and the heart and the inner eye with short,savage strokes.
—New York Times

Richard Bernstein