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February022009

Just Out: George Steiner at The New Yorker

Filed under: Little Words   Tagged: , , ,

Jonathan Taylor writes:

New Directions has just published George Steiner at the New Yorker, a collection of 28 of the more than 130 pieces the legendary critic contributed between 1966 and 1997, including assessments not only of Brecht, Borges, Beckett, and Benjamin, but also of Robert Pirsig, Graham Greene, and Guy Davenport.

Comments

Thanks for the tip, Jonathan - I’ve only read a little of Steiner, but was mightily impressed by it. Have you read a lot of his work? Any pieces stand out?

Steiner, Pritchett and Updike were the magazine’s book reviewers when I first started reading it. Man, how I savored those reviews! Steiner has a slightly operatic style. James Wood eviscerated it in a spectacular essay entitled “George Steiner’s Unreal Presence” (collected in Wood’s “The Broken Estate”). Nevertheless, I retain a soft spot in my heart for old Steiner. Actually, the Steiner piece I remember most vividly is not a book review, but an essay about Anthony Blunt, the British art historian and Soviet spy that was published in The New Yorker. The essay’s final sentence is an explosive “Damn him!” I’ve never forgotten it.

Interestingly, that Blunt piece is the first essay in this book.

James Wood’s attack on Steiner can be found here. The intro to the volume, by Salmagundi editor Robert Boyers, is in rather a defensive key, countering “critics” of Steiner who go unnamed, except that Wood’s piece is quoted, without attribution.

I tremble a bit to say it, but having read a good chunk of this book, I think there’s a lot to what Wood says. More on that later, I hope.

Driedchar, that thing about Steiner’s parting shot is about the best thing ever, thank you so much for bringing that in here. For those who want to find it, the article appeared in the December 8, 1980 issue (a familiar date to many; John Lennon was shot that day) — and the line was actually “Damn the man.” Zowie!

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