His first stories were composed in fluent literary French.

'Though he was at home in Yiddish and Hebrew, and was familiar with the traditional texts and their demanding commentaries, he added to these a lifelong fascination with Maupassant and Flaubert. In addition to regular school subjects, Babel studied the Talmud and music. As a result, he was schooled at home by private tutors. Despite the fact that Babel received passing grades, his place was given to another boy, whose parents had bribed school officials. However, he first had to overcome the Jewish quota. In his pre-teens, Babel hoped to get into the preparatory class of the Nicolas I Odesa Commercial School. Babel's daughter, Nathalie Babel Brown, stated that her father fabricated this and other biographical details in order to 'present an appropriate past for a young Soviet writer who was not a member of the Communist Party.' In fact, Babel's father was a dealer in farm implements and owned a large warehouse. According to his autobiographical statements, Babel's father, Manus, was an impoverished shopkeeper. Babel used Moldavanka as the setting for Odessa Stories and the play Sunset.Īlthough Babel's short stories present his family as 'destitute and muddle-headed', they were relatively well-off.

They later returned to live in a more fashionable part of Odesa in 1906. Soon after his birth, the Babel family moved to the port city of Nikolaev.

Isaac Babel was born in the Moldavanka section of Odesa, Russia, to Jewish parents, Manus and Feyga Babel.

Verhalen uit Odessa by Isaac Babel