Babel quote

[Melissa Frazier]

Dear Colleagues,

Pevear gives as the epigraph to his introduction to his translation of "War and Peace" a quote from Isaac Babel:

"If the world could write by itself, it would write like Tolstoy"

but he doesn't cite his source--and while I'm finding this quote all over the web in English, it's always unattributed.  Can anyone point me to the original Russian?  The best I've found is "Когда читаешь Толстого, то это пишет мир," from  Babel's essay "О творческом пути писателя"; is that what everyone is quoting?  I would be grateful for any thoughts off-line at mfrazier at slc.edu.

Thank you!

Melissa Frazier

__________________________________
Melissa Frazier
Russian Language and Literature
Sarah Lawrence College
1 Mead Way
Bronxville, NY 10708
914-395-2295

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