''Odessa Stories'' (russian: Одесские рассказы, Odesskiye rasskazy), also known as ''Tales of Odessa'', is a collection of four short stories by
Isaac Babel, set in
Odessa
Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...
in the last days of the
Russian empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...
and the
Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government ...
. Published individually in Soviet magazines between 1921 and 1924 and collected into a book in 1931, they deal primarily with a group of
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
thugs that live in
Moldavanka, a
ghetto
A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished ...
of Odessa. Their leader is
Benya Krik, known as the King, and loosely based on the historical figure
Mishka Yaponchik.
In 1926, Babel adapted parts of the first two stories and additional content as a screenplay, ''
Benya Krik'', directed by and released in 1927, as well as the play ''
Sunset
Sunset, also known as sundown, is the daily disappearance of the Sun below the horizon due to Earth's rotation. As viewed from everywhere on Earth (except the North and South poles), the equinox Sun sets due west at the moment of both the spr ...
'', which premiered in October 1927.
Stories
The four stories originally included in the 1931 collection are:
* The King (Король) (1921)
* How It Was Done in Odessa (Как это делалось в Одессе) (1923)
* The Father (Отец) (1924)
* Lyubka the Cossack (Любка Казак) (1924)
The following stories have at times been included by editors as part of the "Odessa Stories" cycle as well:
* Fairness in Brackets (Справедливость в скобках) (1921)
* You Missed the Boat, Captain! (1924)
* End of the Almshouse (Конец богадельни) (written 1920–29, published 1932)
* Froim Grach (Фроим Грач) (written 1933, published 1963)
* Sunset (Закат) (written 1924–35, published 1963)
*Karl-Yankel (Карл-Янкель) (1931)
Translations
* Walter Morison, in ''The Collected Stories'' (1955)
*Andrew R. MacAndrew: ''Lyubka the Cossack and Other Stories'' (1963)
*
David McDuff, in ''Collected Stories'' (1994, Penguin)
*
Peter Constantine, in ''The Complete Works of Isaac Babel'' (Norton, 2002)
*
Boris Dralyuk, in ''Odessa Stories'' (Pushkin Press, 2016)
* Val Vinokur, in ''The Essential Fictions'' (Northwestern University Press, 2017)
See also
*
''Sunset'' (play)
*
Culture of Odessa
References
External links
Benya Krikat the
Internet Movie Database
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
.
1931 short story collections
Russian short story collections
Short stories about organized crime
Odesa in fiction
Short stories by Isaac Babel
Books about the Russian Revolution
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