In an alternate 1830s Britain powered by silver-working, a Cantonese orphan is brought to Oxford to train at the Royal Institute of Translation, known as Babel, where magic is made from the gaps between languages. As he learns that the empire's wealth rests on colonial exploitation, he must choose between the institution that raised him and a secret society resisting it.
Books mentioned in Babel (41)
The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith: “The boy glanced at the title. The Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith.”
Colonel Jack by Daniel Defoe: “the wet, crumpled fingerprints he left on a new edition of Defoe's Colonel Jack shamed him enough to make him give up the practice”
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: “He greatly enjoyed Mary Shelley's Frankenstein”
The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens: “He stumbled on a series called The Pickwick Papers by someone named Charles Dickens”
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens: “He'd bought Robin the three-volume set of Oliver Twist; also chapter epigraph (epigraph)”
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens: “CHARLES DICKENS, Great Expectations (chapter epigraph) (epigraph)”
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: “They landed on a familiar volume on the shelf above Professor Lovell's head – Gulliver's Travels”
The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope: “for a full year Robin thought The Rape of the Lock was about fornication with an iron bolt instead of the theft of hair”
Iliad by Homer: “You take things too far, and you get something like Pope's translation of the Iliad”
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft: “Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman, published only forty years ago, had inspired waves of loud, proud feminists”
Bhagavad Gita: “I'm currently working on a better Latin version of the Bhagavad Gita”
The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot: “T. S. Eliot had supplied some of the more recent and detailed landscape descriptions on record, but The Waste Land was so self-referential”
Essay on the Principles of Translation by Alexander Fraser Tytler: “They'd been assigned the introductory chapter of Essay on Principles of Translation by Lord Alexander Fraser Tytler Woodhouselee”
Agricola by Tacitus: “He and Mr Felton had moved on to Tacitus's Agricola now.”
The Dying Negro by Thomas Day and John Bicknell: “That one by Bicknell and Day. It's called The Dying Negro.”
Ein Fichtenbaum by Heinrich Heine: “Consider the Heinrich Heine poem 'Ein Fichtenbaum'”
Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge: “'I know China,' Woolcombe interjected. 'Kubla Khan.' ... 'The Coleridge poem,' Woolcombe clarified.”
The Aeneid by Virgil: “Let us begin with what Dryden wrote about the Aeneid. I have endeavoured to make Virgil speak such English as he would himself have spoken”
The Prelude by William Wordsworth: “WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, The Prelude (chapter epigraph) (epigraph)”
Oxford by C. S. Lewis: “C.S. LEWIS, 'Oxford' (chapter epigraph) (epigraph)”
Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll: “'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master, that's all.' LEWIS CARROLL (epigraph)”
The Book of Snobs by William Makepeace Thackeray: “WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY, The Book of Snobs (chapter epigraph) (epigraph)”
State of German Literature by Thomas Carlyle: “THOMAS CARLYLE, 'State of German Literature' (chapter epigraph) (epigraph)”
Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats: “JOHN KEATS, 'Ode to a Nightingale' (chapter epigraph) (epigraph)”
Death's Jest-Book by Thomas Lovell Beddoes: “THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES, Death's Jest-Book (chapter epigraph) (epigraph)”
The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon: “FRANTZ FANON, The Wretched of the Earth, trans. Richard Philcox (chapter epigraph) (epigraph)”
Song to the Men of England by Percy Bysshe Shelley: “PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY, 'Song to the Men of England' (chapter epigraph) (epigraph)”
London by William Blake: “How the Chimney-sweepers cry / Every blackning Church appalls... WILLIAM BLAKE, 'London' (epigraph)”
The Cummerbund by Edward Lear: “EDWARD LEAR, 'The Cummerbund' (chapter epigraph) (epigraph)”
Gramática de la lengua castellana by Antonio de Nebrija: “Language has always been the companion of empire... ANTONIO DE NEBRIJA, Gramática de la lengua castellana (epigraph)”