AUSTRIAN STUDIES, 12, 2OO4 The University ofMetz has a distinguished record of research and publication in the area of Franco-German/Austrian relations, and not the least interesting aspect of this volume is its view of Austria seen pardy through French eyes. The last volume in the series,which contains the proceedings of the fourth and final confer ence, dealing with satire in exile and after an eventual return toAustria, has now also been published, appearing at the end of 2003. University of Greenwich Richard Dove From Prague Poet toOxfordAnthropologist. Franz Baermann SteinerCelebrated.Essays and Translations. Ed. by Jeremy Adler, Richard Fardon and Carol Tully. (Publications of the Institute ofGermanic Studies 80). Munich: Iudicium. 2003. 265 pp. 28,80. isbn 3-89129-685-1. Ironically, the trajectory of Franz Baermann Steiner's career in the public domain was the exact opposite ofthat suggested in the tide of thisvolume: while he achieved recognition as an anthropologist in the 1940s and 50s, and posthumously with Taboo (1956), the reception of his poetry was beset early on by ill-fortune.As Nicolas J. Ziegler's essay documents, it isonly in the last decade or so thathis reputation as a poet has grown. This first book of essays on Steiner is a product of the renewed interest and for that reason alone constitutes an important landmark. Based on a symposium held at the Institute of Germanic Studies, London, in 2000 to com memorate (belatedly) Steiner's ninetieth birthday, it offers an excellent range of scholarship that conveys Steiner's vast learning and broad cultural frame of reference, from myth to medieval Spain, from theories of civilization to Czech esotericism. The essays are organized into threemain sections ? 'Anthropology', 'Cultural Context' and 'Poetry' ? with a final section of biographical pieces by Steiner's friendsH. G. Adler, Esther Frank and Elias Canetti. The continuity of ideas between the essay sections reflects the fluid boundaries between personal expe rience, anthropology and poetry in Steiner's own life and work. Indeed, there is a sense of cohesion throughout the book as the complex of experiences and ideas fundamental to Steiner's thought recur: theHolocaust, exile,Judaism, myth, taboo, danger, colonization. Both Richard Fardon and Erhard Sch?ttpelz effectivelybring to light consistency within Steiner's anthropological writings, a noteworthy undertaking given that they consist of a myriad of essays, notes and aphorisms. Fardon argues thatwhat makes Steiner's theoretical writings cohere isprecisely his subjectivity.His use of personal experience to develop anthropological theory, in contrast to themore objectified anthropology of his Oxford colleague E. E. Evans-Pritchard, creates 'authenticity' which foreshadows later post-colonial attitudes. Sch?ttpelz, in contrast, traces the relationship between 'transformation' and 'identification' in the construction of social value as a leitmotifthroughout his work. Michael Mack concludes the section by offeringan accessible discussion of how Steiner explores the 'sociology of danger' inhis later poetry. Pertinent examples reveal the inextricable linkbetween Steiner's anthropology and poetic uvre. Steiner's 'cultural context' and role as cultural mediator are explored within a broad European framework. Robert B. Pynsent locates Steiner's firstwork Die Planeten, a translation ofJosefMaria Emanuel Leseticky Lesehradu's Planety, in its 302 Reviews Czech literary context. A detailed account of Lesehradu's work and the popular occultism of? -de-si?cle Prague provides the necessary background, but regrettably Pynsent offersonly a cursory comparison ofDie Planetenwith theCzech original that does not fully explore the dynamics of Steiner's work as translator. Ines Schlenker and Peter J. Conradi investigate how Steiner influenced others as subject and inspi ration. Schlenker shows how Marie-Louise von Motesiczky's naive styleof painting revealingly caricatures Steiner and his friends,most notably his relationship with Canetti in 'Conversation in the Library' (1950), while Conradi demonstrates the importance of Steiner to IrisMurdoch, offering speculative but credible evidence of the portrayal of her 'most beloved' Jewish teacher in her work, notably in the character Willy Kost inTheNice and the Good (1968). In the section on poetry, Carol Tully considers Steiner's personal and poetic association with Spain, drawing a fruitful comparison between two poems that come to termswith the death of a father: Steiner's 'Gebet imGarten am Geburtstag meines Vaters' and Jorge Manrique's fifteenth...