Cavalry Corps Diary

Author: Isaac Babel / Wang Ruoxing
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-04-01
Features: Many aspects of Babel's diary often conflict with each other. It is one of the darkest and most unsettling books I have ever read. —David Herman, pioneer of Holocaust literature, whose effect is stronger than any Holocaust literature I have read. —Harold Bloom, The New York Times Book Review
The book is divided into sections: Diary of the Cossack Army, Supplements to the Cossack Army, Sketches and Memoirs, and Others. The Diary of the Cossack Army is a battlefield diary written by the author in 1920 while serving with the Cossack Army led by Budenny. It was preserved by women translators such as M.R. Ofrytska and first published in the twelfth issue of the magazine Humanity Friendship in 1987. Most of the story of the novel The Cossack Army originates from this diary. It is not only regarded as a valuable document for studying the author and related history but also a literary masterpiece in itself. The profound and sincere insights of the author, along with the precise and refined writing style, have been highly praised by many renowned writers around the world. In the Supplements to the Cossack Army, Grishka and They Were Nine were written before 1923. The former was published in local Odessa newspapers, while the latter seems to have not been published during the author's lifetime and was preserved in manuscript by M.R. Ofrytska. The Sketches section includes early factual works written by the author for newspapers, nearly news features, and were published in New Life in 1918, Red Cossack Army in 1920, and Dawn of the East in 1922. The Recollections and Others section includes six works of remembrance, as well as two lectures on literature and creative perspectives.