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Lesson 3 of 9·The Wisdom of Jewish Literature

"The Story of My Dovecote" by Isaac Babel

In this semi-autobiographical portrait, Babel depicts a boy's coming of age in a Jewish family in tsarist Russia. He offers a vivid description of a world where pogroms, discrimination, and violence shape daily life. In the story's anti-sentimentalism, Babel shows how hardship transforms both the child and his society.

Taught By

Ruth R. Wisse
Ruth R. Wisse is professor emerita of Yiddish and comparative literatures at Harvard and a distinguished senior fellow at Tikvah. Her memoir Free as a Jew: a Personal Memoir of National Self-Liberation, chapters of which appeared in Mosaic in somewhat different form, is out from Wicked Son Press.