ABSTRACT
This brief excerpt from an interview published in 1995 by The Paris Review reveals much about George Steiner (b. 1929). At first glance, his comments intimate his presumption of a command of history that allows broad, sweeping generalizations and a command of literature that allows frequent allusions and appeals to authorities both famous and less so. More importantly, however, these comments also intimate his passion for reading, a “remedial reading in a deeply moral sense.”2 In his own terms, his life and work in the field of comparative literature is committed to a type of reading that “should commit us to a vision, should engage our humanity.”3 This vision is cultivated through true reading, that is, true or “the old” criticism. For Steiner, only this true criticism can save us from the spirit of invidia that dominates our day.4 From the pages of his first bookTolstoy or Dostoevsky (1960)—Søren Kierkegaard has played an important role in the development and communication of Steiner’s attempt to teach his idiosyncratic remedial mode of reading.5
