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. Selected as a 1998 Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times Book Review "One of our great literary and cultural critics reflects on his life and the themes that have aroused his passion. . . . A beautifully written and intensely stimulating book."-Kirkus Reviews "No prominent critic shows us better why the great books matter and how to bring to our reading of them what concentration and awareness we're capable of."-Stephen Goode, Washington Times "This intriguing and thoughtful book is, and is not, Steiner's autobiography. Writing about his ideas comes more naturally to him than writing about his lived experience."-Victoria Glendinning, The Telegraph "A minor literary masterpiece."-Scott Stossel, Boston Phoenix Winner of the Truman Capote Lifetime Achievement Award in Literary Criticism in 1999 George Steiner was recently Lord Weidenfeld Visiting Professor of Comparative Literature at Oxford University. He reviews for the Times Literary Supplement and other American and European journals. He is the author of numerous books that have been translated into a dozen languages.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"It happens to be blindingly obvious to me that study, theological-philosophic argument, classical music, poetry, art, all that is 'difficult because it is excellent'... are the excuse for life." It is this postulate that reigns supreme throughout the eminent literary critic's latest book. The subtitle to the work implies an autobiography of some sort, but those who come to this slender volume with that notion will be disappointed. Steiner knows that real life is the life of the mind, and so he dazzles his readers with the raison d'etre of his passionate existence. Each chapter exists as a separate essay, and each essay is witty and rewarding. Steiner argues for the benefits of classical education, the underestimated importance of grammar, the supremacy of classical music. What little autobiographical information there is?snapshots of an upper-class childhood in Vienna, Paris and New York, praise for overzealous instructors, cold nods to jealous academics at Oxford and Chicago?only prefaces meditations on that which Steiner holds to be true and most dear, as when a description of his own trilingual life leads us to a discussion of the Babel myth, the power of language and the important role of the future tense in the drama of humanity. One would think that this might distance the reader from the author as subject; on the contrary, it allows us an intimate and captivating glimpse into Steiner's mind and thought.

Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This is ostensibly a memoir by the noted critic, scholar, and novelist Steiner, a professor of English and comparative literature at Cambridge and the University of Geneva and author of many books, most recently No Passion Spent (LJ, 4/1/96). In a series of elegant and thoughtful essays, he traces important episodes in his intellectual growth and passion for high culture and learning, first inculcated by his father. At the same time, and more significantly, Steiner uses these episodes as the occasion for a series of meditations on the nature of literary studies, higher education, language, and music. He also contemplates the origins of anti-Semitism and the survival of Judaism. Provocative and profound, this fine work is recommended for both public and academic libraries.?Thomas L. Cooksey, Armstrong State Coll., Savannah, Ga.

Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Composing in a minor key, one of our great literary and cultural critics reflects on his life and the themes that have aroused his passion. Steiner has published 12 or so remarkable books of criticism, depending on how you count them, and sundry other volumes of fiction and essays. As a senior book reviewer at the New Yorker, he did much to call attention to books that might otherwise have slipped by unnoticed. Lately, he has taken a chair in comparative literature at Oxford, the first ever. Not a bad track record, by any standard. Alas, Mr. Steiner is not satisfied, for no Steinerian school of thought has sprung from his brow. Despite undertones of self-pity and outlandish self-regard, Steiner once again offers a beautifully written and intensely stimulating book. This one is a retrospective of the main influences on and themes of his career: the relationship of high culture to cruelty in the 20th century; the superior authenticity of diaspora Judaism vis--vis Israel; the undefinable link between language and music; the sheer miracle of language itself; the modern retreat from the word; and the meaning of God for the modern mind. Steiner explores these themes anew from a biographical point of view, explaining how he came to them and what they have meant to him. Oddly, Steiner's tone is elegiac, for he thinks his work has been underrated and occasionally plagiarized. At the same time, he is proud to be an outsider to recent decades of literary criticism. Justifiably sohe really is an extraterritorial critic, belonging to the tradition of exceptional figures such as Walter Benjamin and Karl Kraus. This new book amply rewards both casual readers and specialists. Steiner's work is a tribute to a single-minded originality that has been successful against the odds. He is inimitable; a Steiner school of criticism is a contradiction in terms. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

A memoir, even an intellectual memoir, submits the writer to the common human risk of personal exposure. He may not be liked; he may not even be likable. Steiner as memoirist is not particularly likable, but just often enough he is irresistible. -- The Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review, Richard Eder --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

George Steiner is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Geneva. His books include The Death of Tragedy, Language in Silence, In Bluebeard's Castle, and On Difficulty and Other Essays.