Robert Alter (1) (1935–)

The title of this book is a mouthful: The Pleasures of Reading in an Ideological Age. The reference to ideology is not directly political (although some of the ideologies Alter has in mind originate in politics). Instead, Alter seeks in this book to push back at recent trends dominating the academic study of literature. More than the problems of method these trends display, he laments their displacement of the act of reading.

Alter’s solution isn’t a return to non-critical (“simple”) reading. Instead, by examination of character, style, allusion, structure, and perspective (a term he prefers over narratology), his book argues that a familiarity with these and other techniques that set literature apart from other forms of writing enhances the reader’s pleasure.

Each of these techniques is illustrated by analyzing examples as old as Homer and the Hebrew Bible, as well as a range of novels and a few poems.

A side note: I read the first edition of this book and enjoyed finding that the front flap of the dust jacket contained a useful summary of the book’s thesis and contents. I’ve grown accustomed to this space being devoted to adjective-laden puffs instead. Another endangered pleasure of reading?… (more)

I'll try to keep this short and to the point. Thus, numbers.
1) Two of the volumes are massive: a couple of decades ago, I used to justify buying paper books because one couldn't curl up with a fiche reader at home. Alter's Prophets and Writings volumes, however, are actually worse than fiche readers; kick back with these things in bed, and you will hurt yourself and/or your partner.

2) It's Alter's vanity project: He's an old man these days, and I'm convinced that this was intended to be his last great contribution. It certainly sold well.

3) He did this all himself: Yup, a project on this scale usual involves at least a little bit of outside help, but this is all Alter. That's good and bad. Check out Edward L. Greenstein's review in Review of Biblical Literature 3/20 (Sorry I don't have the full citation; I printed the article off assuming that the full citation was there and, alas, it's not). Greenstein's not too impressed, and he makes some solid points, but you get the sense that he's angry because he wasn't invited to the party. See for yourself.

4) All save for the latter prophets were published before but ...: All of the material here save for Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zeke, and the 12, were published earlier. Indeed those earlier volumes are much more manageable than the current three volume set, but know this: those earlier volumes have editorial errors in them, and those errors were cleaned up in the 3 volume set. For instance, in the earlier version of the Torah (Five books of Moses. New York: Norton, 2004. ISBN 9780393019551) Exodus 20:17 on p.432 the text reads "You shall not covet your fellow man's wife, or his male slave ... etc." For those of you familiar with the 10 commandments this should feel like it's missing something. It is. The new and improved reading in the 2019 edition (volume 1, pp. 297-298) reads "You shall not covet your fellow man's house. You shall not covet your fellow man's wife, .. etc.) Errors like this are understandable, and the best effort has been made to correct them, but keep it in mind should you opt for a more manageable, earlier edition.

5) No bibliography: Think about that one for a while. I'm sure you'll be able to draw some conclusions about the translator's personality.

Finally, Alter's my go-to translation these days. No, it's not perfect, and yes, in person he's aloof and dickish, but still his sensibility both with Hebrew and with English shored up with a literary critical eye make it a very, very desirable armature when one is plugging away at the MT. It's more than worth the price of admission.… (more)