Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature - New and Expanded Edition (Princeton Classics)

I first read this book roughly 40 years ago. The presentation of each chapter's main passages in both their original language and in English translation opened up many linguistic horizons to me, even when I couldn't yet read the originals so well or at all; and the range of authors opened up many literary ones. The patience, detail and humanity of Auerbach's approach were amazing, even if his larger objectives are considered old-fashioned by today's standards. It's a long book that requires close reading, but I was really sorry to reach the end.One need not care about the book's creation narrative, that it was written while Auerbach was in wartime exile in Istanbul, to appreciate the book itself. Some 21st Century critics have claimed that there were both a strong community of exiled scholars and many library resources that had been moved to Istanbul in that period, insinuating that Auerbach was in a cushier situation than suggested in his story of how the book came to be. As if his material circumstances would be determinative of his state of mind; this is a red herring.Nor need one accept Auerbach's goal of an "objective" approach to literary history to be inspired by the sensitivity of his readings. Through his close attention to layers of meaning in specific words and phrases, the book gave me a practical and lively appreciation of a philological approach -- something I later found useful both in law practice and in teaching about non-literary topics. It also deepened my enjoyment of other recreational reading.The wide range of sources pulled in by Auerbach operates as a great suggested reading list from the classical Western canon. Just remember that it was written in the 1940s, so it's too early for many of the additions to that canon prompted by late 20th Century movements such as post-colonialism, feminist critical theory, etc.I still have my copy that I bought in the early 1970s: I've carried it with me as I've moved up and down seaboards, back and forth across a continent, and across an ocean. So that copy has become something of a memento. I recently decided to re-read the book, but wanted a clean copy in which I could freely pencil notes. The new copy arrived yesterday (in March 2020) -- but what a disappointment.The book's cover price is remarkably stable, considering the inflation from the 1970s to today. But the quality has plummeted. The book today is more than 1 cm thicker than the old one, due to cheaper paper. The ink is gray, not black. The text has been photographically enlarged. One might think that this would be a blessing for my aged eyes, but it's not: the edges of the letters are pixellated, and far from crisp. Moreover, the margins of the pages have shrunk. This not only makes it more difficult to write comments, but it also makes the typographical distinction between Auerbach's commentary and his specimen texts less salient. As for the cover, the reproduction of a painting by Caravaggio manages to be both pale and muddy at once.Books are, among other things, functional tools, and their design is important. No thought was given to that here, aside from cutting corners for profit.If you're especially interested to read Edward Said's introduction, added in 2003, the publisher has made this available for free online. As for Auerbach's wonderful book, I would recommend that you look for a used copy of an older edition. If you prefer not to read a previous owner's notes, highlights and underlines, find one in 'very good' or better condition. The cover of my old copy had a reddened image of some architectural details (maybe from an engraving?) -- I suspect such copies will have the older, clearer typography as well.

A great work like Mimesis is hard to summarize and still harder to review. It encompasses the author’s view of the evolution of three thousand years of Western literature. In it Auerbach traces how style and subject changes from Homer to Cervantes to Proust. Since writers traditionally have the task of giving shape to inchoate reality this journey also encompasses the changing worldviews of the Western world. I personally am a fast reader but even I had to slow down to fully fathom the idea laden six hundred some pages in over more than one week. I can say I stole every hour I could to read this work: it is that arresting.As a result, I’ll just mumble a few words about why the work is worth reading.We live in an era when evolutionary psychology is revealing with impressive accuracy the millions of years of adaption that is the human brain. But one thing that is not often pointed out is that, unique among animals, the human being has a lengthy preparation for adulthood. Our brains are not fully grown until our early twenties. And during that twenty some year time of growth and development human beings are able to teach a culture: the stories, theories and technologies that our predecessors have accomplished. It is this tutelage, this progressive enculturing that is responsible for the fact that we live in an era of terrestrial history called the anthropocene.If one lives in the modern West, even if one’s ancestors are non-Western, one’s mind, one’s whole being really, is saturated in the cultural developments Auerbach traces in Mimesis.And that is it really. One can choose to understand one’s culture or simply absorb it unthinkingly through osmosis. If you want to understand the Western tradition, Auerbach is a fallible yet indispensable guide. As a result of reading this book one will be able to peer in and better understand the myriad traditions that make up the West. If that doesn’t convince one to purchase this book, perhaps one is just not meant to read It.Highly recommended to all fellow seekers.

This is an outstanding work of literary criticism. Each chapter is organized around a work of literature beginning with Homer and concluding with Virginia Woolf. The author typically quotes a short passage in its original language, a translation follows, then a close analysis of the language, and then a discussion of the historical milieu that gave rise to the work. The author proceeds slowly and carefully with precise and nuanced readings of the texts and deep insight into the world that gave birth to the text. But the book is not easy. Many of the texts analyzed will be obscure even to educated readers. Historical contexts will often be similarly obscure. Although foreign language texts are translated the translations often do not include material outside of the text.-- so unless you can read most of the European languages, Latin, medieval French, much will be lost. Not surprisingly the most accessible chapters are the first (Homer and the Old Testament) and the last (Virginia Woolf) which are not presented as translations Liberal arts education has changed radically since this book was first published (in German) over sixty years ago. Because there are very few modern readers who will have a similar level of erudition as Auerbach it would be helpful for the book to be reissued with appropriate footnotes.

This is an inexhaustible book. The elegance and clarity of the writing, and the insights into various literary epochs are both profound and totally natural. The first two essays, contrasting The Iliad with the Old Testament, and the Satyricon with the New Testament, are breathtaking in their brilliance, I can read them over and over again with the greatest pleasure.

The book by Auerbach is the finest work of literary history I've ever read. Trask's translation was less than perfect, but adequate. Said's 2003 "Introduction" is a worthless piece of self-indulgence.

An utterly intriguing book all about philology and finding profound connections between vastly different literary periods. If you're looking for a very high quality book of literary criticism I would highly recommend this one, especially if you're a student as it's slightly more unusual and unique than the obvious ones.My favourite part features a particularly moving scene from The Odyssey:That scar –as the old nurse cradled his leg and her hands passed downshe felt it, knew it, suddenly let his foot fall –down it dropped in the basin – the bronze clanged,tipping over, spilling water across the floor.Joy and torment gripped her heart at once,tears rushed to her eyes.This rather poignant scene comes near the end, when after his tumultuous voyage Odysseus returns to Ithaca in secret. His old nurse, Euryclea, begins to bathe his feet, believing him to be a mysterious stranger, when suddenly she feels a scar on his leg he has had since childhood and in a wave of joy and torment realises who he really is. This moment is a wonderful example of Homer’s distinctive and elegant style of writing, a style that was one of the seeds whose roots would grow into the many-branched tree of the English language.Forty lines are devoted to the moments before Euryclea discovers Odysseus’ scar, eighty lines to the realisation itself, and another forty to the events directly after it. In these eighty intervening lines Euryclea diverges into the story of how Odysseus came by the scar when he was a boy; the details of his uncle Autolycus, the young boy’s arrival, the banquet, the boar hunt, the injury… a contemporary reader might interpret this common Homeric device as a means by which to increase suspense but Auerbach argues that it is in fact to relieve tension. We are drawn into the idyllic tale in a wonderful osmosis of detail.Homeric verse is defined by its detail.He inserted lengthy personal histories and anecdotes into scenes that lasted mere seconds. Auerbach argues that the genius of the Homeric style becomes even more apparent when it is compared with an equally ancient and equally epic style from a different world of forums… the Bible. The Bible strikingly contrasts with Homer by remaining utterly vague and abstract. Take Abraham’s sacrifice as an example. God supposedly orders Abraham to kill his son to prove his loyalty and obedience. This begins in Genesis with, “And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said to him, Abraham! And he said, Behold, here I am.” Approach this scene from a Homeric perspective and it becomes wildly inadequate. Where are the speakers? Usually man and deity are not physically together but God’s voice must project from somewhere, how? Why? Where?The biblical stories fervently rely on the fact that they are based on historical truth, an urgent claim that excludes all else, it is so badly in need of interpretation, strangled by doctrine and promise, it demands absolute authority, unlike Homer, who invites us into a pastoral world of ordinary, relatable heroes. The Bible forces us to fit our own reality into its rigid template with rigid laws implied but not explained. And so it seeks to overcome our reality, not enrich it, whereas Homeric verse is simple really, it delights in physical existence and its highest aim is to make that delight perceptible to us. It conceals nothing, it does not claim some sanctimonious evangelical meaning, it is purely and simply art. The words do not become tangled and marred in their own sanctimony, it is poetry for the sake of poetry, whereas the Bible lacks that Homeric eloquence.Homer can be analysed but perhaps not interpreted.A truly excellent book.

Auerbach, Erich. Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western LiteratureThis tightly-packed volume (579 pages in my paperback edition) is a comprehensive survey of the landmarks in Western fiction, from Virgil’s the Odyssey to Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse. As Auerbach himself admits towards the end of his book he has had to be severely restricted by the enormous task, being ‘guided by a few motifs’ and by trying them out ‘on a series of texts.’ For, as he goes on to say, ‘It is a hopeless venture to try to be really complete within the total exterior continuum and yet make what is essential stand out.’Since my interest is mainly on the development of realism in the English novel I concentrated on Auerbach’s discussion of ‘the new realists’ in Chapters 18-20. Speaking of what Ian Watt terms ‘The Rise of the Novel’ in the Eighteenth Century, Auerbach concludes that the fictional characters ‘on the whole …lead lives of well-to-do bourgeois, since they are comfortably housed, eat exquisitely and indulge every craving of refined sensuality, since their existence is never threatened by great upheavals and dangers.’ This is true of Fielding and Richardson’s work, but not of Defoe’s nor of the satirical works of Swift or Voltaire. But then Watt would probably not admit these works into his highly selective category of ‘the novel.’ (hm, hm!).Of more modern works, Auerbach notes that ‘The writer as narrator of objective facts has almost completely vanished; almost everything stated appears by way of reflection in the consciousness of the dramatis personae.’ Auerbach goes on to complain that modern writers ‘have discarded presenting the story of their characters with any claim to exterior completeness, thus James Joyce’s Ulysees ‘has for its frame the externally insignificant course of a day in the lives of a schoolteacher and an advertising broker.’ But Joyce’s novel goes beyond these ‘insignificant’ lives to investigate history, religion, philosophy and communication. True, he has no conclusions but this is the purpose of moden fiction - to investigate scientifically the possibility of closure - and ultimately to reject it.

This is a book of lasting importance for anyone interested in how "realism" creates its effects and how a realist-posture writing has developed through the centuries. Any fan of the "close reading" approach to literary texts will find "Mimesis" informative as well as enjoyable.

Bought as gift