Isaac Babel's Complete Prose Published in 1,300-Page Volume

French publisher Le Bruit du Temps has released a comprehensive 1,300-page collection of Isaac Babel's complete prose works, excluding correspondence. The volume is divided into three books: the first gathers childhood stories, including 'History of My Dovecote' and Odessa tales; the second centers on 'Red Cavalry' and related texts; the third includes later writings, two short stories, a chapter for a collective novel, drafts, articles, reportage, screenplays, his final play 'Maria', and interviews. Babel was born in 1894 in Odessa, studied Hebrew, the Bible, and the Talmud until age sixteen, and was influenced by Maupassant and Flaubert. A decisive meeting with Maxim Gorky led him to travel and write from experience. He served as a correspondent for the Red Cavalry during the Russo-Polish War in 1920, which resulted in 'Red Cavalry' and his '1920 Diary'. He was arrested in May 1939 on espionage charges, tortured, and executed on January 27, 1940. The publisher is noted for reviving neglected works by major authors, including W. H. Auden, Ernest Hemingway, Henry James, D. H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, Marcel Proust, and Robert Browning.