Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

At the intersection of magic, history, and suspense lies the commentary on empire-building we have been waiting for.

By Abby Vela

Hidden in plain sight, step into the silver-studded ivory tower of Babel—home to the brightest minds of the empire. From the writer of the award-winning novel, “The Poppy War,” R. F. Kuang plunges readers into a world of magic, colonization, academia, and murder in her latest novel, “Babel: An Arcane History.” 

Set in 19th-century Victorian England, Kuang’s world revolves around the unlikely center of the British empire—the Oxford Institute of Translation. After years of preparation, the brightest minds in the colonized world make their way to the Institute to learn to “dance in the shackles” of linguistics and translation. 

Robin Swift, one of such students, hails from Canton, China, before he is whisked away to London with a grave Oxford professor and is thrust into a world of splendor, filled with the intangible wars of the mind and the linguistic magic of silver. He quickly learns that the world is much more interconnected, and much more dangerous, than those under the rule of the British government have been led to believe. Along with his peers in his Oxford cohort, Robin holds both the key to the empire and its downfall and, with this, must decide (if at all) how to use it.

Now, before I continue, I have to preface by saying that this book is not for everyone. It’s didactic; it’s brooding. At times, it can feel like you’ve been shoved into a classroom of Babel, filled with all of the mind-numbing, linguistic jargon and the complimentary stress of being a university student. 

But on the other hand it’s a personal triumph shared with the characters to read this novel: to digest every linguistic and philosophical turn of phrase, to learn along with the characters just how otherworldly life at a prestigious university can be, and to feel both delighted and disgusted by the pretension and complacency of the social elite in the face of injustice.

Kuang knows her stuff; that much is obvious. She crafts prose in an incredibly purposeful way, such that each word adds to the smoggy essence of the story. With her multiple degrees in Eastern Asian language and literature, it’s unsurprising that this novel reads like an exploration of these themes. “Babel” is her literary playground, and she pours an incredible amount of care into how she crafts it—enough so that the reader will feel just as connected to this world of study as she does.

Of course, it was not without its faults. I thought that the characters could have been more fleshed out, specifically the antagonists and protagonists of the novel; Kuang left me wanting more, wishing that she would complicate our perspective and force the reader to empathize with them. The point of focus for nearly the entire novel is Robin, and while you learn to cherish him, he does not have the perspectives that his peers have, nor does he ask them about it. 

Another issue that I found with this novel was the use of foreshadowing; the passages meant to build suspense felt stilted, Kuang opting to tell the reader that suspense was building rather than letting it happen naturally. More than once I found myself thinking, “Wow, that was a little heavy-handed on the foreshadowing.” At most turns, you could probably guess what comes next and which path the characters will take. That being said, Kuang does an excellent job of averting your attention from the foreshadowing—not so much that you forget she said it, but enough that you care about how the characters get to that climactic moment. In certain moments, the book reads as a reflection on the events in the novel, but it only does so while everything is a little too calm, simply to stir up anticipation. And I must say, I found this pacing quite effective.

More often than not, “Babel: An Arcane History” left me wanting more in the best way possible. It’s been a long time since I’ve read something as riveting as this piece. Kuang has done some masterful work with this novel, weaving together elements of fantasy, historical fiction, and dark academia in a way that kept me turning every page. I couldn’t put this book down; if any of this sounds even vaguely intriguing, I promise you won’t be able to either.