Reading George Steiner

The collection is a model of editorial acuity, the essays persuasive and eloquent, ensuring that by the end almost every aspect of the Steiner oeuvre has been mentioned, if not discussed.

No critic, no man of letters in our time, has surpassed the scope, seriousness, verbal virtuosity—truly, he is the Guest of Language—and sheer vivacity of mind of George Steiner. The various, supple, often subtle, essays of this volume do critical honor to Steiner, his fierce poetics of meaning, his shocking deed of semantic trust. And unlike so much contemporary criticism, they all share a tact of the heart.

No critic, no man of letters in our time, has surpassed the scope, seriousness, verbal virtuosity—truly, he is the Guest of Language—and sheer vivacity of mind of George Steiner. The various, supple, often subtle, essays of this volume do critical honor to Steiner, his fierce poetics of meaning, his shocking deed of semantic trust. And unlike so much contemporary criticism, they all share a tact of the heart.