From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal retort to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British empire.
Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.
1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel.
Babel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire’s quest for colonization.
For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide…
Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
Anne
20.9.2022
3.5 stars was very dissapointed by the magic system. the addition of magical silver created a world that feels identical to our own. there was barely any alternate history in this story of an alternate Imperial Britain. the main four characters never truly felt like inseperable friends to me. in a book about the technicality and history of language, the language regarding race and gender was too modern. this is a made up world, and so, historical accuracy is not needed, but kuang adds so much detail to historical accuracy in all other areas that I don't think it being a piece of fiction is an excuse. to modernise the language of 1830s victims of racism, sexism, and classism to this extent seems to work against an attempt to honor the voices of historical people. the book does not fail entirely in these areas of: characters, world, and themes. it was a very entertaining read. the problem is, that it doesn't feel like much of a lasting read. I would only ever recommend to read this if you are obsessed with dark academia, or if you want to see what the hype is about and be able to discuss this book with other people. if you don't care about the concersation around this book or dark academia, you might as well leave it alone. there are historical first hand accounts of what it was like to be an oppressed person under the British Empire written by those same people. I suspect such accounts would be a better use of time. this book feels like a modern account of oppression.
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