Isaac Babel’s work has left an indelible mark on modern literature. The scope of this Norton Critical Edition surpasses that of any other Babel paperback edition and includes his fiction, nonfiction, autobiography, plays, and political writings together with the contextual and critical materials necessary for in-depth study. Background materials include “Selected Letters of Isaac Babel to His Sister and Mother, 1926-1939,” a rich collection of letters–sixty-eight in all, as well as “Isaac Babel Through the Eyes of His Contemporaries,” reminiscences by the contemporaries who knew Babel best, including Maxim Gorky, Tamara Ivanova (Kashirina), M. N. Berkov, and Dmitry Furmanov, among others. “Criticism” reprints four major assessments of Babel’s legacy by Viktor Shklovsky, Lionel Trilling, Efraim Sicher, and Gregory Freidin. A Chronology and a Selected Bibliography are also included.

Table of Contents:
Introduction A Note on the Translations and Annotations A Note on the Organization of the Collection Acknowledgements Isaac Babel’s Selected Writings Unacknowledged Beginning Old Shloyme Conquering Petersburg DEBUT IN FICTION Elya Isaakovich and Margarita Prokofievna Mama, Rimma, and Alla The Bathroom Window MAN ABOUT TOWN The Public Library Nine Odessa Doudu JEWISH FOLKLORE Shabos-Nakhamu A CULTURAL AND SOCIAL CRITIC OF THE REVOLUTION Mosaic An Incident on the Nevsky Prospekt At the Station: A Sketch from Life PETERSBURG TALES An Evening with the Empress Chink The Sin of Jesus Line and Color Guy de Maupassant The Road The Ivan and Maria Maria: A Play in Eight Scenes The Polish Campaign: Civil War or World Revolution RED CAVALRY Crossing the River Zbrucz The Church in Novograd A Letter The Reserve Cavalry Commander Pan Apolek Italian Sun Gedali My First Goose The Rabbi The Road to Brody The Tachanka Theory Dolgushov’s Death The Commander of the Second Brigade Sashka Christ The Life of Matvey Rodionovich Pavlichenko The Cemetery in Kozin Prishchepa The Story of a Horse Konkin Berestechko Salt Evening Afonka Bida At Saint Valentine’s Squadron Commander Trunov Ivan and Ivan The Continuation of the Story of a Horse The Widow Zamosc Treason Czesniki After the Battle The Song The Rabbi’s Son RED CAVALRY: ALTERNATE ENDINGS Argamak The Kiss 1920 DIARY REPORTING FOR THE RED CAVALRYMAN We Need More Men Like Trunov The Knights of Civilization Murderers Who Have Yet to Be Clubbed to Death Her Day The Caucasus At the Workers’ Retreat Bagrat-Ogly and the Eyes of His Bull Information The Odessa Stories The King How Things Were Done in Odessa Lyubka the Cossack Sunset: A Play in Eight Scenes Karl-Yankel The End of the Almshouse Froim Grach Collectivization and the Five-Year Plan Gapa Guzhva Kolyvushka Petroleum Paris Dante Street The Trial Autobiographical Fiction: Childhood At Grandmother’s The Story of My Dovecote First Love The Awakening In the Basement Di Grasso Selected Letters of Isaac Babel to His Sister and Mother, 1926-1939 Isaac Babel Through the Eyes of His Contemporaries Nathalie Babel • [The Family] M. N. Berkov • We Knew Each Other since Childhood Pyotr Pilsky • [The Young Babel] Elena Pilsky • [Babel in Odessa, 1919–1920] Konstantin Paustovsky • Life’s Novel. The Time of Great Expectations Yuri Annenkov • Isaac Babel Dmitry Furmanov • Notes from the Diary 1925–1926 Semyon Gekht • By the Walls of the Passion Monastery on a Summer Day in 1924 Kornei Chukovsky • Diary (1901–1969) Tamara Ivanova (Kashirina) • A Chapter from My Life   (Memoirs, Letters of I. Babel) Vyacheslav Polonsky • Diary, 1931–1932 Stalin-Kaganovich Correspondence Gorky’s Letter to Babel about Maria Boris Souvarine • My Last Conversations with Babel Ilya Ehrenburg • A Book for Adults   • People, Years, Life Clara Malraux • The Sound of Our Steps: Suddenly Summer Comes Valentina Khodasevich • Babel as I Saw Him   • Meetings at A. M. Gorky’s Country House Before and After His Death NKVD Reports on Babel, 1934–1936 Erwin Sinko • A Novel about a Novel. Moscow Diary Nadezhda Mandelstam • Hope against Hope Tatyana Stakh • [The Search] Antonina Pirozhkova • At His Side: The Last Years of Isaac Babel Criticism Viktor Shklovsky • Isaac Babel: A Critical Romance Semyon Budyonny • The Babism of Babel from Red Virgin Soil Lionel Trilling • The Forbidden Dialectic Efraim Sicher • Midrash and History: A Key to the Babelesque Imagination Gregory Freidin • The Other Babel Isaac Babel: A Chronology Selected Bibliography