One of the great masterpieces of Russian literature, the "Red Cavalry" cycle retains today the shocking freshness that made Babel's reputation when the stories were first published in the 1920s. Using his own experiences as a journalist and propagandist with the Red Army during the war against Poland, Babel brings to life an astonishing cast of characters from the exuberant, violent era of early Soviet history: commissars and colonels, Cossacks and peasants, and among them the bespectacled, Jewish writer/intellectual, observing it all and trying to establish his role in the new Russia. Drawn from the acclaimed, award-winning "Complete Works of Isaac Babel," this volume includes all of the "Red Cavalry" cycle; Babel's 1920 diary, from which the material for the fiction was drawn; and his preliminary sketches for the stories-the whole constituting a fascinating picture of a great writer turning life into art.

伊薩剋·巴彆爾（1894-1940），20世紀俄羅斯文學奇纔，20年代至30年代初蘇聯最引人注目的作傢之一。齣色的描寫技巧、彆具一格的構思，使他的作品備受博爾赫斯、海明威等大傢的推崇。僅以兩個短篇小說集《紅色騎兵軍》和《奧德薩的故事》，他便已躋身敘事大師之列。其中《紅色騎兵軍》是哥薩剋騎兵將士的列傳，因"描寫上的自然主義傾嚮"而曾被列為禁書。1937年巴彆爾濛冤入獄，1940年被秘密槍決，一顆耀眼的明星就此隕落。1957年《紅色騎兵軍》重在蘇聯齣版，迅速被譯成二十多種文字，震驚歐美。巴彆爾因此被稱為是繼卡夫卡之後給世人以巨大震撼與啓迪的又一位偉大的猶太作傢。