Di Grasso (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Isaac Babel
- First Published: 1937
- Type of Plot: Impressionistic
- Time of Work: 1908
- Setting: Odessa
- Principal Characters: The narrator, The narrator, Nick Schwarz, Di Grasso, Madam Schwarz
- Genres: Short fiction, Impressionistic literature
- Subjects: Acting or actors, Art or artists, Jews or Jewish life, Drama or dramatists, Theater, Russia or Russian people, Happiness
- Locales: Odessa, Ukraine
The Story
Because this brief work is a sophisticated commentary on the nature of art as well as “just a story,” it is all the more interesting for the reader to know that it is the last work Isaac Babel published in his lifetime, before he fell victim to Stalinist justice. Although the exact circumstances of Babel's arrest in 1939 are not known, it is believed that he was charged with espionage, a patently contrived accusation; he was executed in 1941. The Jewish author, whose collections of stories were often reprinted during his lifetime, was “rehabilitated” after the...
[The entire page is 1388 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
See Also
