The Library at Night

by Alberto Manguel

• ISBN13: 9780300139143
• ISBN10: 0300139144
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2008-04-29
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

Inspired by the process of creating a library for his fifteenth-century home near the Loire, in France, Alberto Manguel, the acclaimed writer on books and reading, has taken up the subject of libraries. "Libraries," he says, "have always seemed to me pleasantly mad places, and for as long as I can remember I've been seduced by their labyrinthine logic." In this personal, deliberately unsystematic, and wide-ranging book, he offers a captivating meditation on the meaning of libraries. Manguel, a guide of irrepressible enthusiasm, conducts a unique library tour that extends from his childhood bookshelves to the "complete" libraries of the Internet, from Ancient Egypt and Greece to the Arab world, from China and Rome to Google. He ponders the doomed library of Alexandria as well as the personal libraries of Charles Dickens, Jorge Luis Borges, and others. He recounts stories of people who have struggled against tyranny to preserve freedom of thoughtthe Polish librarian who smuggled books to safety as the Nazis began their destruction of Jewish libraries; the Afghani bookseller who kept his store open through decades of unrest. Oral "memory libraries" kept alive by prisoners, libraries of banned books, the imaginary library of Count Dracula, the library of books never writtenManguel illuminates the mysteries of libraries as no other writer could. With scores of wonderful images throughout,The Library at Nightis a fascinating voyage through Manguel's mind, memory, and vast knowledge of books and civilizations.

Author Biography

Alberto Manguel is an internationally acclaimed anthologist, translator, essayist, novelist, and editor, and the author of several award-winning books, including A Dictionary of Imaginary Places and A History of Reading. A native of Buenos Aires, he lives in France.

Table of Contents

The Library as Myth	p. 6
The Library as Order	p. 36
The Library as Space	p. 64
The Library as Power	p. 90
The Library as Shadow	p. 106
The Library as Shape	p. 128
The Library as Chance	p. 162
The Library as Workshop	p. 176
The Library as Mind	p. 192
The Library as Island	p. 214
The Library as Survival	p. 234
The Library as Oblivion	p. 252
The Library as Imagination	p. 268
The Library as Identity	p. 292
The Library as Home	p. 306
Conclusion	p. 320
Acknowledgments	p. 326
Notes	p. 329
Image Credits	p. 357
Index	p. 361
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.