George Steiner Books

A collection of essays and articles about the life of language, and its role in a world where words are used to manipulate as often as they are used to convey meaning Language and Silence is a book about language—and politics, meaning, silence, and the future of literature. Originally published between 1958 and 1966, the essays that make up this collection ponder whether we have passed out of an era of verbal primacy and into one of post-linguistic forms—or partial silence. Steiner explores the idea of the abandonment of contemporary literary criticism, from the classics to the works of William Shakespeare, Lawrence Durell, Thomas Mann, Leon Trotsky, and more.

\Why, over the course of history, have humans developed thousands of different languages when the social, material, and economic advantages of a single tongue are obvious? Steiner argues that different cultures’ desires for privacy and exclusivity led to each developing its own language. Translation, he believes, is at the very heart of human communication, and thus at the heart of human nature. From our everyday perception of the world around us, to creativity and the uninhibited imagination, to the often inexplicable poignancy of poetry, we are constantly translating—even from our native language.

\Why, over the course of history, have humans developed thousands of different languages when the social, material, and economic advantages of a single tongue are obvious? Steiner argues that different cultures’ desires for privacy and exclusivity led to each developing its own language. Translation, he believes, is at the very heart of human communication, and thus at the heart of human nature. From our everyday perception of the world around us, to creativity and the uninhibited imagination, to the often inexplicable poignancy of poetry, we are constantly translating—even from our native language.

Best known as the author of twenty-six novels, Iris Murdoch also made significant contributions to the fields of ethics and aesthetics. Collected here for the first time in one volume are her most influential literary and philosophical essays. Tracing Murdoch's journey to a modern Platonism, this volume includes incisive evaluations of the thought and writings of T. S. Eliot, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvior, and Elias Canetti, as well as key texts on the continuing importance of the sublime, on the concept of love, and the role great literature can play in curing the ills of philosophy. Existentialists and Mystics not only illuminates the mysticism and intellectual underpinnings of Murdoch's novels, but confirms her major contributions to twentieth-century thought.

Steiner, one of the great literary minds of the 20th century, relates the story of his life and the ways that people, places, and events have colored the central ideas and themes of his work. "A profoundly beautiful autobiographical work".-- Literary Review

George Steiner--one of the preeminent essayists and literary thinkers of our era--addresses issues of language and the relation of language to literature and to religion. He covers a wide range of subjects from Homer and Shakespeare to Jewish scripture, religious tradition, and the effects of the Holocaust.

Eight essays by the literary critic probe the history and formal structure of inward speech as well as the relationship between linguistics and poetics and between language and literature

The author presents a penetrating analysis of the collapse of Western culture during the last half of the twentieth century

This collection of short stories includes "Proofs", a literary thriller which explores the conflict between fact and fiction in life and literature. Also included are "Noel, Noel", "Desert Island Disks" and "Conversation Piece".