1920 Diary

Babel, Isaac; Editing, Introduction, & Notes by Carol J. Avins; translated by H. T. Willetts

ISBN 10: 0300059663 / ISBN 13: 9780300059663

Published by Yale University Press, New Haven, CT & London, 1995

About this Item

Owner name on endpaper.

Seller Inventory # 45491

Bibliographic Details

• Title: 1920 Diary
• Publisher: Yale University Press, New Haven, CT & London
• Publication Date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0300059663
• ISBN 13: 9780300059663
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st US Printing.
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good-
• Seller catalogs:
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About this title

Synopsis

The Russian writer Isaac Babel (1894-1940) is widely acknowledged to be one of the great masters of twentieth-century literature, hailed as a genius by such critics as Lionel Trilling and Irving Howe. The work for which he is best known is a cycle of stories called Red Cavalry, which depicts the exploits of the Cossack cavalry during the Polish-Soviet war of 1919-1920 and is based on Babel's experiences as he rode with the Cossacks during the campaign. Throughout this period Babel kept a diary, in which he recorded the devastation of the war, the extreme cruelty of the Polish and Red armies alike toward the Jewish population in Ukraine and eastern Poland, and his own conflicted role as both Soviet revolutionary and Jew. The 1920 Diary, a vital source for Red Cavalry as well as a compelling narrative, is now published in English for the first time.
The 1920 Diary is the most significant contemporary account of the tragedy of Eastern European Jewry during this period. The Diary also yields important insights into Babel's personal evolution, showing his youthful curiosity and his anguish as, frequently concealing his own Jewish identity, he mingled with the victimized Jews of the region's shtetls and with his Cossack comrades. Finally, the Diary sheds light on Babel's artistic development, revealing the path from observations recorded in excitement and despair to the painstakingly crafted narratives of the Red Cavalry cycle.

Reviews

Published in English for the first time, this slender work records noted Russian writer Babel's experiences as a correspondent with a troop of Cossacks during the Russo-Polish war (1919-1920). Amid the destruction and cruelty, perhaps the most compelling factor here is Babel himself: apparently hiding his Jewish identity, at times deeply moved by the Jewish communities he visits, at others distancing himself as a "Russian" from their petty concerns and real sufferings, he tells them "fairy tales" (which he does not believe) about the achievements and future of the revolution and is both fascinated and repulsed by the Cossacks and their violence and awed by the "un-Russian" cleanliness and culture of the Poles. Most entries are brief, telegraphic notes to spur the memory and call out scenes or people to be described later. The diary in fact became the basis for Cavalerie Rouge (1983); readers familiar with those stories will find the relation between Babel's first impressions and the finished work fascinating.?Richard Kuczkowski, Dominican Coll., Blauvelt, N.Y.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.