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Rating: 
Summary: Thought-provoking book
Review: After Babel is one of the hard-to-read books, Steiner sort of demand that you have read all of the books in the world. Nevertheless, you will find insurmountable information that will enrich your knowledge both in literature and linguistics. Plus, Steiner wrote the book in such a beauty, enchanting sometimes, that you wouldn't normally expect out of a book with such subject (at least to me). Interesting point (to me) that Steiner poses
"[W]e speak to communicate. But also to conceal, to leave unspoken." Steiner also put forward the diversity of languages and how that coincides with the fact that we are, each one of us, a unique creature. He questions such diversity too; why does it have to be more than one language. Thus, he also questions the universal concept of language. This is a thought-provoking book, and to me there's nothing more interesting than a thought-provoking book.
Rating: 
Summary: Translation as an insight into the language
Review: For those who expect to find a list of practical instructions on translation methods or a review on the history of translation, the book "After Babel" by Professor George Steiner will be a bit of a surprise. Because you won't find anything of the kind. On the contrary, it deals with the more general linguistic and philosophic notions - such as meaning, context, historic relativity, cultural aspects of the language and literature - to bring up the nature of the art of translation and language. The author treats translation not as an aquired skill only, but rather as a natural ability of a human being to perceive and interpret one's native language as well as a foreign tongue. Professor Steiner employs numerous examples of works of literature and translation that appeared in the 18th century and still are major guidelines for both scholars and readers. Throughout the book we come across multiple references to the works of ancient Greek scholars who defined the linguistic areas of interest for the generations of scholars to come. This work - even though it does not provide us with "how-tos" - is of major importance to the linguistic community and expecially to translators, since it opens up the physical curtain of the language and brings us behind the words and structure.
Rating:
Summary: Translation as an insight into the language
Review: For those who expect to find a list of practical instructions on translation methods or a review on the history of translation, the book "After Babel" by Professor George Steiner will be a bit of a surprise. Because you won't find anything of the kind. On the contrary, it deals with the more general linguistic and philosophic notions - such as meaning, context, historic relativity, cultural aspects of the language and literature - to bring up the nature of the art of translation and language. The author treats translation not as an aquired skill only, but rather as a natural ability of a human being to perceive and interpret one's native language as well as a foreign tongue. Professor Steiner employs numerous examples of works of literature and translation that appeared in the 18th century and still are major guidelines for both scholars and readers. Throughout the book we come across multiple references to the works of ancient Greek scholars who defined the linguistic areas of interest for the generations of scholars to come. This work - even though it does not provide us with "how-tos" - is of major importance to the linguistic community and expecially to translators, since it opens up the physical curtain of the language and brings us behind the words and structure.
Rating:
Summary: What's Left after Babel?
Review: George Steiner's After Babel is a must-read for anyone interested in language and translation. Yes, the book is rather long; however, the information found there can be applied to many fields of study: language, literature, linguistics, and even sociology and anthropology.
The first edition of the book was published in 1975, and two subsequent editions have hit the press since then: the second edition in 1992, and the third in 1998. According to Steiner, the first edition has some "inexactitudes of phrasing, particularly in reference to what were then called transformational generative grammars," and it "lacked clarity in regard to the vital topic of temporality in Semitic and Indo-European syntax." Taking this into account, I would recommend that you read the second or the third edition of the book. The second edition does not seem to stray much from the third; however there are some significant changes in the last chapter of the book.
The objective of After Babel is clearly delineated in the preface/prefaces, and the six chapters that comprise it are well organized. Throughout the book, George Steiner tries to reconcile the supposed chaos stemming from the Biblical fall of Babel Tower and the Darwinian benefit of having so many languages in the world. The first three chapters basically deal with issues of language. They are sprinkled with some interesting tidbits from Steiner's experiences as, what he claims to be, a native speaker of English, French, and German. The fourth chapter gives the reader a nice history of translation in about sixty pages; however, the fifth chapter, "The Hermeneutic Motion," seems to be Steiner's shining glory because it explains his own ideas about translation which includes a very interesting bit about the translation of time.
Steiner's basic premise is that translation is a part of everyday communication: "To understand is to decipher. To hear significance is to translate." Steiner sees a translation as an artistic act, and perhaps, this is the reason he cannot give actual "tools" for creating a translation. What he does do is explain the act of translation and the process that a translator goes through as he transfers a text from one languages into another.
Although the text does contain many examples to support Steiner's translation analyses and a section containing top picks of successful translations that meet the goals of his hermeneutic theory, the reader who cannot read French and German will find them a bit difficult to take-in. Still, the book is overall enjoyable and insightful.
Rating:
Summary: What's Left after Babel?
Review: George Steiner's After Babel is a must-read for anyone interested in language and translation. Yes, the book is rather long; however, the information found there can be applied to many fields of study: language, literature, linguistics, and even sociology and anthropology.
The first edition of the book was published in 1975, and two subsequent editions have hit the press since then: the second edition in 1992, and the third in 1998. According to Steiner, the first edition has some "inexactitudes of phrasing, particularly in reference to what were then called transformational generative grammars," and it "lacked clarity in regard to the vital topic of temporality in Semitic and Indo-European syntax." Taking this into account, I would recommend that you read the second or the third edition of the book. The second edition does not seem to stray much from the third; however there are some significant changes in the last chapter of the book.
The objective of After Babel is clearly delineated in the preface/prefaces, and the six chapters that comprise it are well organized. Throughout the book, George Steiner tries to reconcile the supposed chaos stemming from the Biblical fall of Babel Tower and the Darwinian benefit of having so many languages in the world. The first three chapters basically deal with issues of language. They are sprinkled with some interesting tidbits from Steiner's experiences as, what he claims to be, a native speaker of English, French, and German. The fourth chapter gives the reader a nice history of translation in about sixty pages; however, the fifth chapter, "The Hermeneutic Motion," seems to be Steiner's shining glory because it explains his own ideas about translation which includes a very interesting bit about the translation of time.
Steiner's basic premise is that translation is a part of everyday communication: "To understand is to decipher. To hear significance is to translate." Steiner sees a translation as an artistic act, and perhaps, this is the reason he cannot give actual "tools" for creating a translation. What he does do is explain the act of translation and the process that a translator goes through as he transfers a text from one languages into another.
Although the text does contain many examples to support Steiner's translation analyses and a section containing top picks of successful translations that meet the goals of his hermeneutic theory, the reader who cannot read French and German will find them a bit difficult to take-in. Still, the book is overall enjoyable and insightful.
Rating:
Summary: Maybe the most profound book on the nature of language ever
Review: Steiner examines questions of how we understand and use language by focussing upon the difficulties of translation. Many readers brought up on a coding theory view of language may find the book's thesis difficult to understand and thereby experience the problem at first hand. Steiner takes a view of language antithetic to the rule governed coding system espoused by Chomsky. He does not suggest a mechanism for language understanding. Instead he provides a myriad examples of cases which the coding theory approach could never hope to account for. In order to understand you have to try and work out what the other is saying. Language facilitates but is not the prerequisite of communication. An absolute tour de force of a book.
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