Babel quote

[Sasha Senderovich]

The source is Babel's talk at Soyuz pisatelei on 28 September 1937; it was
first published in _Nash sovremennik_, no.4, 1964. Babel says a number of
things about Tolstoy there, but here is the precise quote I believe you are
looking for: "Когда читаешь Толстого, то [чувствуешь, что] это пишет мир,
многообразие мира." (p. 97)

Square brackets appear in the transcript published in Nash sovremennik.

Full citation: I. Babel', "O tvorcheskom puti pisatelia," *Nash sovremennik* 4
(1964): 96-100

All the best,
Sasha Senderovich


==================================
Sasha Senderovich

Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow
Center for the Humanities at Tufts University
sasha.senderovich at tufts.edu

Davis Center Associate
Harvard University
senderov at fas.harvard.edu



2010/10/14 Melissa Frazier <mfrazier at sarahlawrence.edu>

> 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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