Закат

by Isaac Babel

Tramonto (1926) rientra nella cerchia d'interessi che legava Babel' alla Moldavanka, quartiere ebraico della sua Odessa, e ai personaggi più o meno leggendari la cui fama, celebrata nel quartiere aveva colpito l'immaginazioned ell'adolescente, che più tardi ne avrebbe esaltato le vicende nel ciclo dei Racconti di Odessa.
In Tramonto però l'atmosfera è mutata: i personaggi favolosi, ingigantiti dall'iperbole, diventano uomini reali che si misurano con la tragedia dell'inevitabile decadenza e della morte in situazioni che per la loro emblematicità si astraggono dal flusso temporale.

77 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1926

About the author

Isaak Emmanuilovich Babel (Russian: Исаак Эммануилович Бабель; 1894 - 1940) was a Russian language journalist, playwright, literary translator, and short story writer. He is best known as the author of Red Cavalry, Story of my Dovecote and Tales of Odessa, all of which are considered masterpieces of Russian literature. Babel has also been acclaimed as "the greatest prose writer of Russian Jewry."

Loyal to, but not uncritical of, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Isaak Babel fell victim to Joseph Stalin's Great Purge due to his longterm affair with the wife of NKVD chief Nikolai Yezhov. Babel was arrested by the NKVD at Peredelkino on the night of May 15, 1939. After "confessing", under torture, to being a Trotskyist terrorist and foreign spy, Babel was shot on January 27, 1940. The arrest and execution of Isaak Babel has been labeled a catastrophe for the world of literature.

Reviews

[Mattea Carberry · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was my first time reading any sort of creative work in the original russian without having read the english translation beforehand. so, i’m not surprised i did not really understand much. don’t get me wrong, i did read it the full way through and looked up the (many) words i did not know, but i definitely didn’t understand it on a complex and overarching level. but it’s okay cuz i still read it nonetheless and maybe i’ll read it again in a few years and hopefully will be shocked by how much more i understand and can read between the lines :)

[Maurizio Manco · Rating 3 out of 5]

"La forza è sempre insaziabile, e soltanto il dolore appaga il cuore." (p. 43)