Errata: An Examined Life

by George Steiner

George Steiner, one of the great literary minds of our century, here relates the story of his own life and the ways that people, places, and events have colored the central ideas and themes of his work. Brilliant and witty, his memoir reveals Steiner's thoughts on the meaning of the western tradition and its philosophic and religious premises.
 

Genres: Biography, Philosophy, Memoir, Essays, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, Literature

214 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

See also: George A. Steiner, author on Management and Planning.

Dr. Francis George Steiner was an essayist, novelist, philosopher, literary critic, and educator. He wrote for The New Yorker for over thirty years, contributing over two hundred reviews. Among his many awards, he received The Truman Capote Lifetime Achievement Award from Stanford University 1998. He lived in Cambridge, England, with his wife, historian Zara Shakow Steiner.

In 1950 he earned an M.A. from Harvard University, where he won the Bell Prize in American Literature, and received his Ph.D. from Oxford University (Balliol College) on a Rhodes Scholarship in 1955. He was then a scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, for two years. He became a founding fellow of Churchill College at the University of Cambridge in 1961, and has been an Extraordinary Fellow there since 1969. Additionally, Steiner accepted the post of Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Geneva in 1974, which he held for 20 years, teaching in four languages. He became Professor Emeritus at Geneva University on his retirement in 1994, and an Honorary Fellow at Balliol College at Oxford University in 1995. He later held the positions of the first Lord Weidenfeld Professor of Comparative Literature and Fellow of St. Anne's College at Oxford University from 1994 to 1995, and Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University from 2001 to 2002.

Reviews

[Φώτης Καραμπεσίνης · Rating 5 out of 5]

Έχω ήδη εκφράσει τις απόψεις μου για τον Στάινερ και το έργο του στο "Περί δυσκολίας" (link στο blog μου, από κάτω), οπότε δεν θα τις επαναλάβω εδώ. Με λίγα λόγια πάντως, το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο είναι αυτοβιογραφικό και εμπεριέχει το απόσταγμα της σκέψης, της αισθητικής και της κοσμοθεωρίας του μεγάλου διανοητή.
Ως εκ τούτου κρίνεται απαραίτητο για όσους ενδιαφερόμενους. Αντί κριτικής, θα παραθέσω δύο χαρακτηριστικά αποσπάσματα:

"Η συνάντηση, η σύγκρουση της συνείδησης με τη σημαίνουσα μορφή, της αντίληψης με την αισθητική, είναι από τις ισχυρότερες."

"Οι επιθέσεις στον λεγόμενο ελιτισμό κρύβουν μια χυδαία συγκατάβαση: ενάντια σε όλους εκείνους που κρίνονται εκ των προτέρων ανίκανοι για καλύτερα πράγματα."

https://fotiskblog.home.blog/2019/04/...

[Renée · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first time I came across George Steiner was on a Dutch documentary called "Nauwgezet and Wanhopig", which featured interviews with him, György Konrád, Jorge Semprum and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I was impressed by Steiner straight away, his way of words is mesmerizing and I couldn't stop listening to him. I have the same reaction to his books, there's just something about how he treats language and the vast amount of knowledge he has that make them so impressive.

"Errata" is a semi-autobiographical book, coupled with philosophical, linguistic, sociological, and many other types of comments and analyses by Steiner. It's one of his shorter and more accessible books, but this doesn't mean that it's not as good. On the contrary, it may just be his most beautiful work. There's one section in particular that I like to quote just about anywhere;

"We speak in (rich) monotones. Our poetry is haunted by the music it has left behind. Orpheus shrinks to a poet when he looks back, with the impatience of reason, on a music stronger than death."

Read it.

[Jonfaith · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first book finished on our mountain top holiday. There’s been a slight privation of caffeine and an early morning hike left me weary. This isn’t Steiner at his best, cobbling a memoir of sorts from eleven perspectives, eleven essays. The French lycee in Manhattan and his time at the University of Chicago are intriguing anecdotes, especially the latter as he roomed with a paratrooper just home after the war, taking advantage of the newly created GI Bill. The Shoah and the integral significance of translation in humanism feature prominently. Many of the arguments from earlier essays are displayed here, a Zizek like disorder.

Steiner compels me to read Racine but it have to know French first, that rich—given how he didn’t learn Russian or Hebrew. My feet are sunburned and I keep yawning, yet I’m ready to for my next Steiner despite what I won’t dismiss as a setback.

[Ingeborg · Rating 4 out of 5]

George Steiner is the enfant terrible of literary theory, much like Harold Bloom. Both of them can seem a little elitist and old fashioned, however, I still find them very interesting to read today - in the age which fears universal questions. Errata: An Examined Life is a kind of intellectual autobiography. I liked the whole book but took most from the first few chapters, which tell a story about the classical upbringing of George Steiner who spent his youth deciphering the Latin and Greek classics with his father.

There are many details that I take with me from this book, maybe I would like to single out the one about the phenomenon of "deep reading" that Steiner has clearly exercised with his father - a skill that we so much lack today, in the age of skimming. So, after he would read a book, a very young George Steiner would write a little summary of what he has read for his father. If there was a paragraph he would not understand - he had to read it out loud to him - and this would often help him to get the meaning of it. If he still had trouble understanding, he would copy it by hand. That is why he will write: "one reads a classic with a pencil in hand".

The first chapter has also left a great mark on me - the author explains how in his youth he studied the pictorial guide to coats of arms, and there were so many of them, and each was so different - and in great detail, he describes how he was "overwhelmed with a sense of the numberless specificity". He was mesmerized by the question: "if there are in this obscure province of one small country (diminished Austria) so many coats of arms, each unique, how many must there be in Europe, across the globe?"

There could be, I knew, no finality to the one raindrops, to the number and variousness of the stars, to the books to be read, to the languages to be learned. The mosaic of the possible could, at any instant, be splintered and reassembled into new images and notions of meaning. The idiom of heraldry, those “gules” and “bars sinister,” even if I could not yet make it out, must, I sensed, be only one among countless systems of discourse specifically tailored to the teeming diversity of human purposes, artifacts, representations, or concealment (I still recall the strange excitement I felt at the thought that a coat of arms could hide as well as reveal).

At the end of the first chapter, there is a short but genius description of Steiner's view on theory.

I have conducted my emotional, intellectual, and professional affairs in distrust of theory. So far as I am able, I can attach meaning to the concept of theory in the exact and, to some degree, applied sciences. These theoretical constructs demand crucial experiments for their verification or falsification. If refuted, they will be superseded. They can be mathematically or logically formalized. The invocation of “theory” in the humanities, in historical and social studies, in the evaluation of literature and the arts, seems to me mendacious. The humanities are susceptible neither to crucial experiments nor to verification (except on a material, documentary level). Our responses to them are narratives of intuition. In the unbounded dynamics of the semantic, in the flux of the meaningful, in the uncircumscribed interplay of interpretations, the only propositions are those of personal choice, of taste, of echoing affinity or deafness. There can be no refutations or disproofs in any theoretical sense. Coleridge does not refute Samuel Johnson; Picasso does not advance on Raphael. In humane letters, “theory” is nothing but intuition grown impatient.

This is the second time I have read this book, and certainly not the last. Reading Errata is a wonderful reminder that there are other individuals around who live and breathe literature.

In these shallow fast food and fast reading times, George Steiner deserves our full attention - both for his erudite language and the wonderful ways in which he connects everyday life to the importance of reading. For example, he defines a literary classic as a book that "reads us"!

At the end there are pessimist tones where he is a little strict to himself - because he has been accused of being shallow - seeing only the big picture, writing about something he does not know into big detail. And I am sure - for a man of so many books and interests - this is probably true. But is this not the point? We are all different, there are those who only deal with details and so not have the capacity for a bigger picture (too many in the academia today, I should say, because of the whole university system...).

But the world also needs more universal thinkers, people who can step away from details to ask the big and important questions that have not changed since the Homer times: why are we here? what is our purpose - why do we read and what is theory for if we are not able to "use" it - in whichever way we find suitable? Why is academia gotten so sterile, moved so far away from the pleasures of reading? Can we change that? Of course there is nothing "natural" about the literary canon, it has been driven by the politrical, patriarchal forces, it has pushed out women, non-white rases and all others who did not fit into the "noble white male" category. And we need to include everyone, we need to make the canon wide open for all that is good, for all that can "read us" in any way. Steiner was probably too "old school" to see that there is more to "classics" than just "classis classics".

But still, we should use this book to go back to the "core" questions. Because the world is clearly broken in some way. And we need to think in order to fix it.

[Noah · Rating 4 out of 5]

George Steiner ist ein brillanter und charmanter Erzähler mit einem unglaublichen Duktus. Leider beschränkt sich sein Anekdotenschatz auf etwa 20 Anekdoten und der Polymath beschränkt sich im Kern auch auf rund 5 Themenfelder, wer also schon etwas anderes von ihm gelesen hat, wird alsbald auf Wiederholungen stoßen, aber Recycling ist ja gut für die Umwelt, zumal wenn man so gelungen formulieren kann.

[smallwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

這是一本書寫很優雅、內容卻很博雜的散文

Quoted
“我的母親是如此維也納作風，她常常在講話時，以某種語言開頭，用另一種語言結束。...語言在屋子裡流動，飯廳和客廳是英語、法語和德語..在廚房聽到匈牙利語..”

語言本身就定義了這個民族的邏輯
擁有這麼多母語，和民族個性的作者，在尚未閱讀任何論述著作下，硬食完卻意猶未盡的感覺

期許幾年後閱讀量大後，再回來讀能理解更多

[Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

An autobiography only George Steiner could write. This volume contains some of my favorite writing from Steiner and some of my least favorite.

This book is best enjoyed after having read the bulk of his other published work—you read it not for new ideas it will outline, but to get a glimpse into the mind that has already shared so many opinions and insights with you in times past.

[Arthur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Até ao fim do ano, este é e terá sido o melhor livro que li. No que diz respeito à competência passiva e ativa do vocabulário, pode-se dizer, simplificando as coisas, que há dois gêneros de pessoas: as que falam tão bem quanto escrevem e as que escrevem ''tão bem'' quanto falam. As últimas sobejam, já que escrevem mal porque ou mal leem e falam mal, ou só falam mal; as primeiras são invulgares — nos dois sentidos etimológicos. Steiner subsume-se na primeira categoria: ashkenazi no sangue, na formação e no próprio conteúdo da pena, o autor consegue expressar-se hipnoticamente na fala assim como e em virtude da escrita. Assistam às entrevistas dele, são fenomenais! Depois disto, caso cheguem a ler o que ele escreve, entenderão do que falo. O seu primeiro thauma filosófico já na infância, seu esforço em manter a memória excepcional — era um verdadeiro, digamos ''by-hearter'' no bom sentido —, a sua fluência em diversos idiomas (incluindo 3 L1s!), o rigor do seus pais (típicos judeus vienenses) que o carregou aos estudos; enfim, todos esses elementos contribuíram num amalgama insubstituível. O livro não é só uma autobiografia intelectual, não. Para mim, pelo menos, trata-se de uma carta de um irmão espiritual distante, um convite para a reflexão. Os temas tratados vão desde a agonia juvenil de querer inteligir tudo o que há num afã desesperador que acaba o afastando da fé iluminista da teorização sistemática, até ao ponto culminante: a reflexão acerca da inefabilidade de Deus, do agnosticismo, do ateísmo e do amor. Há diversas pedras no meio dessa jornada que eu faço questão de nelas tropeçar. Eis algumas delas: as reflexões acerca de Israel e a condição nômade do judeu, o caráter transcendente da música, a influência da Kabbalah em alguns de seus mestres, a influência de alguns de seus mestres na sua formação, a dádiva de Babel, et ita porro. Para dar um gostinho, fica aqui uma das suas maiores angústias e perguntas (adaptada): como é que um ser humano consegue acordar de manhã para ouvir ou tocar uma sinfonia de Mahler e no dia seguinte visitir a camisa negra da SS e perpetuar o Shoah? No meio de toda a desgraça da condição humana, Steiner sugere que, se há de ter alguma redenção, ela vem daquilo que há de mais elevado: nos grandes homens e mulheres do passado que se cultivaram nas artes e livros e que, até hoje, conosco conversam. Valeu a pena esse gambito todo? Creio que o ''Whiteman renascido'' responde.

[Jluis leon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leer a Steiner, una necesidad

[José António Borges · Rating 5 out of 5]

Um dos livros mais maravilhosos que já li. Steiner é um dos pensadores mais espantosos dos nossos tempos e nesta sua Errata entramos nas revisões de vida dum anti-Ivan Illitch.

[Elzira Rai · Rating 3 out of 5]

One could say that Steiner never quite made up his mind on what kind of book he wanted to write. On the one hand, Errata could be seen as an autobiography of sorts, offering readers a light-feathered reconstruction (rather than an 'examination') of the author's life, from childhood to adulthood to seniorhood, with some introspection and insights on less biographic topics. On the other hand, some chapters are purely essayistic, with hardly any biographical elements at all, and though they are by far the most interesting sections of the book, their inclusion here results in an incohesive text.

Like most biographies, Steiner's life narrative is an ego trip in which the author selects and embellishes a few episodes from his memory bank to claim that his present was already inscribed in his past. And he does this, of course, with formidable pedanticism, name-dropping, classism, and literary verve. However, Steiner's recollections and reconstructions lack the socio-historical detail, or even the attention to the outside world, that make the fabric of good biographic fiction. This is the story of a man focused on himself, sheltered by both ego and class privilege from most things happening around him.

The book is saved from mediocrity by its more essayistic chapters, especially the ones on music, translation, and Judaism. In the latter, Steiner starts with a rather dangerous question: how did Judaism survive despite what he perceives, as most people do, to be a monolithic millenia-long story of persecution? His answer to this erroneous question is twofold, but the moral value and validity of these two approaches could not be more different; in fact, they are entirely contradictory.

Steiner rejects that the teleological purpose of the survival of Judaism could be the establishment of the State of Israel - a nation-state "armed to the teeth", teeming with maffiosi and corrupt politicians, just like any other country. (His silence on some of Israel's most unique traits, such as its sophisticated apartheid regime, betrays a complicity which doesn't befit the compassionate persona presented in the book's final pages). Steiner refuses to believe that Israel's "normalcy" could be the ultimate purpose of the saga of Judaism, perhaps because it amounts to assimilation - that is, to sacrifice its exceptionalism in order to become like any other state. So that purpose, he argues, is exile itself - diasporic existence as a virtue and a quest. Here Steiner embodies the stereotype - as seen by left-wing conspiracy loonies - of the globalist Jew who pledges allegiance to no flag: trees have roots, men have legs, and the exiled Jew is blessed, rather than doomed, to wander in search. Steeped in rootlessness, this exilic condition is said to be an antidote to ethnic hatred and the crimes committed in the name of flags and border worship.
This first answer, however, is contradicted by his second approach. Though Steiner tries to camouflage an age-old cliché with literary pomp and collage techniques, his is an old, all-too-familiar argument: Jewish exceptionalism. Steiner draws on three key figures/moments to illustrate the temporal depth of such exceptionalism: 1) Moses is supposed to offer mankind not only the first expression of monotheism, but also uncompromising moral dictates that seek to push man beyond his instincts; 2) the Sermon of the Mount is said to be "a collage of thoroughly rehearsed injunctions from the Torah, the psalms and the Prophets," but also goes beyond these sources in its call for the abandonment of worldly riches and forgiveness of aggressors; and finally 3) Marx's Socialist Utopia, which again is seen as a distinctively Jewish contribution to mankind.
(One could easily deconstruct the three figures/moments Steiner has chosen to illustrate this picture of exceptionalism: 1: While it can easily be shown that other civilizations have crafted monotheistic visions before Moses, there is no reason to suppose, outside the framework of an evolutionist teleology, that monotheism represents a more advanced spiritual or intellectual stage than any form of polytheism; on the other hand, a quick look at ancient Indian materials would be enough to infirm the idea that Mosaic offers an "unprecedented" challenge to "human instinct"; 2: Numerous Greek and Upanishadic materials called for the abandonment of worldly possessions long before the New Testament was composed; 3: If it is clear that Marx's socialist utopia owes much to the New Testament - which is arguably as Greek as Judaean -, his indebtedness to Hegel and French socialism is no less obvious.)

The purpose of these figures/moments in the text is clear: to substantiate, with some semblance of proof, the old "light unto the nations" rhetoric - that is, to translate an ancient political-religious precept into a factual history of chosenness. Trying not to be too obvious, Steiner states that "the count of ... visitors to Stockholm who are Jews at least in origin is so above any statistical norm or expectation as to be gloriously embarrassing." There is no mention, of course, of the importance of collective organizations/corporatism and class privilege in such count: true to his conservative bent, Steiner sees achievement as a divine reward, unpolluted by worldly considerations of class privilege. Before closing the chapter with a Trotsky quote, the ever reactionary Steiner abandons all modesty and points out that this is "a chosen people or club I would not resign from."

My point, of course, is that there is an obvious contradiction between this allegedly embarrassed form of ethnic chauvinism and the claim that 'homelessness' could be an antidote to ethnic hatred. What at first seems to be a call to embrace the old internationalist view that humans be allowed to circulate beyond borders ("the barbed-wire idiocy of frontiers") and find bonds beyond blood-and-soil myths - or perhaps even a light-handed critique of Israel's pagan worship of soil and borders - turns out to be nothing more than a secularized version of Jewish exceptionalism. That Steiner should fail to perceive the congruence between this view and the ideologies behind the Shoah is a particularly acute form of idiocy.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Com es fa un erudit, un humanista? Quins són els ensenyaments que hom treu d’una vida dedicada a l’estudi dels clàssics, de la filosofia i la literatura, de les arts? Les memòries de Steiner són un enfilall de preocupacions vitals i experiències biogràfiques estimables per a qualsevol aprenent d’humanista. L’herència cultural del judaisme centreeuropeu traslladat als carrers de Manhattan. El llegat de l’Holocaust en la seva comprensió del món. La relació amb els mestres, amb els textos clàssics originals. Les competicions filològiques i els duels per motius semàntics. El paper de la religió a la història i, després d’observar el dolor del món, la defensa de perquè ens cal abraçar l’ateisme. El plany de l’erudit i polimat, cridat a desaparèixer. La impossible recerca de sentit en el fenomen musical. El gaudir dels silencis i de la natura. Un conjunt de flaixos de saviesa i autoconeixement, entreteixit amb grans moments de l’herència cultural d’Occident.

[Salvador · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really waited a long time to read this book and it was totally worth! I saw Steiner for the first time on a TV program called "Beauty and Consolation". In there, him and other philosofers, writers and thinkers of this two enormous words discuss their meaning and their importance for human species. While he gave is thoughts on that, the presenter read some parts of Errata. That was when I knew I needed that book on my shelve. So before you read this book look out for this program!!
To read it you must have some acquired knowledge on the different areas of thought, that's why I waited so long to read it. I was a bit afraid of not being capable to understand all its essence.
But now I read it and eventhough I had to do my search on some matters, it was a fluid reading.
Steiner is one hell of a brain and I could continue all day long writting about him, but who am I to do so? Just go to youtube and use it wisely, search him and get delighted with his briliance, you wont regret doing it. (Sorry for my bad english)

[Liliana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lenta, felizmente, termino de leer Errata de George Steiner. Desde la lluvia infantil que lo llevó al descubrimiento de la lectura hasta la aguda reflexión sobre la existencia de Dios y su vínculo con la naturaleza humana, el libro nos presenta al Steiner más auténtico y genuino: aquél que es, al mismo tiempo, un lector y un erudito, un amante de la palabra y también su siervo, un interlocutor exigente y un testigo de su época. Con insólita lucidez afirmó: "Mi actividad como escritor y profesor, como crítico y académico, ha sido consciente o inconscientemente un 'in memoriam', una conservación del recuerdo".

In memoriam George Steiner, maestro de lectura, guardián del recuerdo.

[Mark Rance · Rating 4 out of 5]

You gotta love a guy willing to help his fellow students. While at the University of Chicago, Steiner steps up.

“Examinations were in the offing. In one of the American literature courses, the set texts included Henry James’s The Golden Bowl. This novel is a somewhat overwrought, involuted parable which a number of the inmates in my dormitory found intractable. Could I help? I thought I could…I knew now that I could invite others into meaning.”

Turns he could help more than his classmates.

Errata is more than that. Steiner tracks his intellectual journey and it travels through the middle of the twentieth century almost to its end.

[Patricia Ibarra · Rating 3 out of 5]

George Steiner was a great humanist and scholar and acknowledged for his vast knowledge in many fields. I thought this was an autobiography, but it is rather an "autobiography" of his way of thinking. The book is organized into chapters, each one dealing with a different topic, such as Jews, education, translation, arts. He exposes his main ideas and explains how he reached those conclusions. A very interesting book, but I found it hard to read. I had to refer constantly to other sources to find more about a character, philosophy, or trend he mentioned.

[César Rey · Rating 4 out of 5]

«Estoy convencido de que estas liberaciones de las limitaciones físicas, de la pared en blanco de nuestra propia muerte y de la aparente eternidad de la desilusión personal y colectiva son, en un sentido crucial, lingüísticas. Biológica y socialmente, somos, en efecto, mamíferos de corta vida, abocados a la extinción, como las demás especies. Pero somos animales lingüísticos, y es este atributo el que, como ningún otro, torna soportable y fructífera nuestra efímera condición».

[AndreasRaptis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Που πας ρε Καραμήτρο, είναι η μόνη φράση που βγαίνει αυθόρμητα προς κάθε κονδυλοφορο που αποπειράται να γράψει τυπου-δοκίμια-φάση κι έτσι, όταν έχει αφήσει το αποτυπωμα του ο μέγιστος του λεκτικου κεντηματος. Εδώ ο Στάινερ, όπως παντα πρωτοπορος και προφητης, αποχαιρετά απο το 1997 τον κόσμο που σβήνει καταιγιστικα πια στις μέρες μας. Βιβλίο για το τέλος του χρόνου, της ζωής του (μου), αναγνωστικό στολίδι και τοπος προσκυνηματος ως τα γεραματα.

[Maurizio Manco · Rating 4 out of 5]

"La mia politica si riassume nel cercare di sostenere qualsiasi ordine sociale capace di ridurre, anche marginalmente, l’aggregato di odio e di sofferenza della condizione umana. E che lasci uno spazio vitale alla privacy e all’eccellenza. Mi considero un anarchico platonico. Non è un programma vincente, me ne rendo conto." (p. 146)

[Steven Eldredge · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an incredibly rich and complex book of memories by one of the world's leading minds. Thoughts on so many aspects of culture: language, music, philosophy, teaching, you name it. One feels stretched open after spending time with George Steiner, like more air and light are coming into one's mind. Highly recommended.

[Alex Sintschenko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having watched and absorbed literally every minute of George Steiner's content on Youtube, I've decided to give his autobiography a go.

A truly fascinating man, a humble genius, and a very talented writer but much too laden with cultural and literal references to be easily digested. I'd imagine it's very much what he intended but as a nonacademic scholar, this can be difficult at times.

[Maia Losch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este libro me cambió la vida. Creo que puedo decir esto solo de dos libros.

[Borja Pano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chapter 7 especially

[William]

Want to read because: Recommended by Russ Roberts and Mike Munger on their Econtalk episode about reading.

[Džentlmen Cestách]

Zemřel teoretik George Steiner, byl přední postavou literární vědy

[Valentina Perugini]

Steiner nos da un vistazo hacia su mente e historia.

[Joni · Rating 2 out of 5]

remembrance of things thought

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not for the general reader, "Errata: An Examined Life" by George Steiner may be of interest to students of philosophy and some writers and teachers. It reads rather like a combination of somewhat meandering and wide-ranging essays and a journal of a man reviewing his lifetime experience of reading, study and independent thinking.

Steiner writes of music, philosophy, theology, writing, translation, literature, what he considers the blessing of Babel, education, teaching, Judaism and World Wars. His observations about why classical music affects us match my own. I think he overstates the value of knowing multiple languages as affording entry keys to different worlds; perhaps rather as discovering new perspectives, although those perspectives reside (and originated) with speakers as well as with the language itself. The treasure arrives almost imperceptibly with a mother tongue attended by wisdom of the ages. It would seem natural to attribute to a second language some content of what is read and heard in that language when it differs instead culturally and otherwise from what is read and heard in the first language. And of course, no translations between two languages can be exact, sometimes not even close, aside possibly for some hard science. (Think Jabberwocky in German.)

It is always interesting to hear from one who thinks for himself and thinks well. The writing style is straightforward.

[Jorge García · Rating 3 out of 5]

El título puede llevar a equívoco, ya que no es estrictamente una autobiografía. Recupera algunos lugares, personajes o paisajes desde donde despegar su omnívora erudición. Y el conjunto es irregular, aunque por momentos su inteligencia alcanza alturas formidables en su recorrido por sus temas más queridos: su amor por los clásicos, el fervor religioso con que escudriña los textos y residuos del arte, y su humanidad al reconocer los límites de su labor crítica (pocos han fustigado o rebajado con más acierto que Steiner a las Humanidades y su aparato académico), y a su vez reivindicando con lucidez este Humanismo (reconocer la soledad de una humanidad libre de Dios u otros sustitutos o infantilismos es, para un judío como Steiner, un ejercicio de saludable ateísmo), iluminando los rincones de la gracia y miserias humanas: la proteica sed de conocimiento, de errar por las fronteras que nos separan de los otros (¿no es eso el fin de todo conocimiento, de un verdadero humanismo?), las lecciones de los maestros (la enseñanza como una de las formas del amor desinteresado)... En esencia, ser humanos sería reconocernos en esta soledad, y a la vez aventurarnos en placeres como el de profundizar dolorosamente en otras lenguas o en los fuegos del amor ("la alucinación de la luz que llena la oscuridad durante esta vigilia").

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read Steiner mostly via his books, not so much the New Yorker stuff (although I look forward to reading the collection of his essays from that magazine). Steiner is more accessible here in some ways than he is in his more theoretical work, but also occasionally tantalizing here more than elucidating or convincing--and when he has a whole book in which to stretch out, I wish he hadn't left quite so much hanging in the air.

In particular, I would like much more information about how he decided on the work he did, how he chose to do this instead of that, and how he sees his career vis-à-vis the world of the academy and the world of middle-/highbrow journalism he has desultorily inhabited along the way. Has he succeeded? At what? And how does he define and measure success?

Lots of provocative, quotable stuff here: a terrific bedside, Sunday-afternoon book.