My Unwritten Books (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

Audacious and original...Steiner discusses, in seven brave, unflinching, and personal essays, books that he "had hoped to write." (SirReadaLot.org) REVIEW: Steiner at his most complex: irascible and passionate, erudite and self-absorbed, determined to engage the most difficult cultural problems. (The New York Times Book Review, Ben Marcus) REVIEW: This spicily honest little book exposes more of the man than ever before. (Guardian, Blake Morrison) REVIEW: By the time you finish this book, it is obvious that Steiner remains a beacon of humane rationalism. (Metrotimes, Brian Sholis) REVIEW: George Steiner's splendid My Unwritten Books suggests we need a pro-life movement in the publishing world—now. (The Philadelphia Inquirer, Carlin Romano) REVIEW: A tongue-in-cheek collection of prefaces to a Borgesian bookshelf of nonexistent texts. (The Jerusalem Report, Matt Nesvisky) REVIEW: One of the best and most fascinating books I have had the pleasure to read in a very long time. (Bookforum, Nick Tosches) REVIEW: The record of emotional maturity, a human wisdom that may have been slowed by intellectual effort. (Rain Taxi, W.C. Bamberger)

Review

Steiner at his most complex: irascible and passionate, erudite and self-absorbed, determined to engage the most difficult cultural problems.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: New Directions (January 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811217035
• ISBN-13: 978-0811217033
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #459,284 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vintage Steiner, November 23, 2008

By	Paul Shaviv (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

For afficianados, this is truly vintage George Steiner, displaying his customary erudition and his provocative ideas and views. Each of these seven essays opens stimulating windows of wit and suggestion, exploring unconventional areas of communal and personal scholarship, values and culture. The elegance of the writing, with its more-than-hints of wicked and mischievous intellectual wit, is truly a pleasure. It would make a fabulous gift to a literate friend.
In more than one of these discourses it is also possible to conjecture a degree of, how should we say, over-vivid memory. It does not diminish, only enhance, the pleasure. George Steiner is a cultural gadfly, whose ideas are always provocative, occasionally outlandish, but are delivered from a commanding cultural height. It is not necessary to agree with all of his ideas to be challenged and enriched by them. Book of the year for me.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Steiner on Steiner (and many others), February 11, 2008

By	Philip Lee "Philip Lee" (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Erudition is Steiner's hallmark. Arcane, provocative, imaginative - Steiner 'joins up the dots' in domains of philosophical and literary inquiry you probably don't even know exist. Given his prolific output, it is difficult to know how he would have found time to write the seven books outlined here that he didn't have time to write. Equally difficult to know who would have read them. Always fascinating, sometimes irritating, he is unquestionaly one of the great teachers. There is humour in the writing, and lamentation at opportunities missed, and personal revelation. Who would have thought that George Steiner...! Disappointing that The New York edition has more typographical errors than a professional publisher should be allowed to get away with.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The swan song of a master writer and thinker , February 15, 2008

By	Hernando Valencia-Villa (Madrid, Spain) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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George Steiner's "My unwritten books" in the swan song of a master writer and thinker, perhaps the greatest living man of letters of our time. Deeply learned and brilliantly written, the book itself is a tour de force because gathers seven essays which turn around seven "unwritten books". This may be a rhetorical device to share pretty original and moving reflections with his readers, but the author's accomplishment is magnificent. Steiner is the world's leading literary sage and he deserves the Nobel prize and more.