Author's Note
Part 1 (Chapters 1-4)
Part 2 (Chapters 5-12)
Part 3 (Chapters 13-15)

“The question arises as to how to resist the global system,
Babel becomes a merciless laboratory of history.” (LA Times)
A fascinating magical steampunk tale about imperialism and globalization.

However, as European languages ​​become closer through exchange and expansion, and word connotations change and merge, the available match pairs become increasingly exhausted, and the need for new languages ​​that are similar but not identical becomes more urgent.
To address this, Babel focuses on finding strong match pairs in non-European (especially Chinese and Indian) languages.
Babel's students, including the protagonist Robin Swift, are language geniuses selected from around the world for this very purpose.


Robin steadily develops his skills as an elite translator who will take charge of Silverworks, the foundation of the British Empire, but one day, his peaceful school life is thrown into crisis when he meets his half-brother Griffin.
Griffin is also of Chinese descent and from Babel. When Griffin rebelled against Babel and went into hiding, Professor Lovell chose Robin as his replacement.
Griffin explains to Robin how Babel is using foreign languages ​​to advance the British Empire's colonial invasion, and persuades him to join the Hermetic Society, a secret society that opposes this.
Robin breaks off her relationship with Griffin, torn between her identity as a Chinese and her comfortable future as an Imperial translator.
Because they were afraid that if they were discovered, they would return to their miserable past of poverty and hunger.


However, Robin, who was sent to Guangdong, China with his classmates as part of a practical training course in his fourth year, witnessed the imperialistic ambitions of Britain, which forced free trade (centered on the sale of opium) on the Qing Dynasty in order to obtain large amounts of silver, and the miserable lives of the Chinese people who lived like ruins, addicted to smuggled opium.
It was just before the Opium War broke out.
Robin learns that Babel is a front for colonial invasion, and that the British government is plotting war to monopolize the Chinese silver needed for the Silverworks.
But this wasn't limited to the colonies.
Even within the empire, the only people who benefited from the Silver Industrial Revolution were the already wealthy and a select few who had the cunning and luck to become wealthy.


At that moment, a huge spider web appeared in Robin's mind.
Cotton flowing from India to England, opium flowing from India to China, silver being turned into tea and porcelain in China, and then everything flowing back into England.
At first it sounded very abstract.
They were just categories of use, exchange, and value.
But now what was abstract is not abstract.
The moment I realized how the world was woven like a spider's web, and how my own lifestyle was causing exploitation within that web, I saw the specter of colonial labor and colonial suffering hanging like a dark cloud over that vast web.
(Volume 2, page 62)

All of these incidents were caught in the same web of oppression and exploitation.
What happens to the Lancashire spinners happened to the Indian weavers first.
Silver-armored, sweaty, and tired workers in British textile mills spun yarn from cotton harvested by American slaves.
The Industrial Revolution brought poverty, inequality, and suffering everywhere, and the only ones who benefited from it were those in power at the center of the empire.
(Volume 2, pages 331-332)

Ultimately, Robin decides to side with the Hermes Society along with his fellow colonists in similar circumstances, thus raising the curtain on the Oxford Translators' Revolution against the Empire.


“To reconstruct the dominant narrative of what the West calls civilization,
That is, let's retranslate it." (Chicago Review of Books)
A Humanistic Exploration of the Proposition that "Translation is Treason"

Beyond its sharp political and social critique of imperialism and globalization, which continue to cause suffering and misery to countless people today, "Babel" further enriches the reader's intellectual enjoyment and reading pleasure with its rich knowledge and interpretation of language and translation. With languages ​​so vastly different from one another, how can accuracy and fidelity in translation be ensured? Is translation value-neutral? In the novel, Professor Playfair explains to his students that translation is not simply about conveying a message, but rather a rewriting of the original text.
“This is where our trouble lies.
Rewriting is also writing, and writing always reflects the writer's ideology and prejudices.
The Latin word translatio means to move.
That is, translation includes spatial dimensions.
It's literally about transporting text across occupied territory, carrying words like you're carrying foreign spices.
Words take on very different meanings as they travel from the courts of Rome to the tea houses of modern England.”

Another problem arises here.
That is, the politics of translation.
As is well-documented in the novel, translation studies developed into an independent discipline during the heyday of imperialism, beginning with the 19th-century German Romantic era.
The global modernization led by Western imperialism was nothing more than a scramble for colonies against non-European countries, and in this process, translation played a crucial role as an essential tool of colonization.
It was only natural that Robin and his friends, who were from the colony, raised the banner of revolution against Babel (Royal Institute of Translators), the vanguard of this colonization.


Professors pretend that Babel is an ivory tower of knowledge, above worldly concerns like business and commerce, but in reality it is not.
Babel is closely intertwined with the colonial enterprise.
No, Babel itself is a colonial enterprise.
Think about it.
Have you ever wondered why the Department of Literature only translates works into English and not vice versa? What do interpreters do when they're sent overseas? Everything Babel does is for the expansion of the empire.
(Volume 1, page 171)

The goal of the revolution led by Robin and his Oxford translator friends was to complete translations that served not the unilateral colonization of imperialism, but rather those that promoted true globalization through mutual communication and understanding.
Therefore, it is only natural that they, who were struggling between violence and non-violence, ended up blowing up Babel with translation magic.


“Isn’t that translation? The same goes for conversation.
Listening to what the other person has to say, trying to overcome the wall of prejudice and understand what the other person is trying to say.
“Putting yourself out into the world and hoping that someone will understand.” (Volume 2, page 423)

“A rich description of an ever-expanding empire, with linguistics, history, politics and
“A close examination of Victorian England.” (Library Journal)
A vivid recreation of Oxford, the mecca of fantasy literature, and the Victorian era.

Oxford University, one of the world's most prestigious universities and a cradle of English literature, has lived up to its reputation by producing numerous writers and serving as the backdrop for literary works.
Even in the fantasy genre, Oxford graduate J.
RR
Tolkien and C.
S. Lewis and Lewis Carroll taught here and wrote their immortal masterpieces, and Philip Pullman's "The Golden Compass" and J.
K. Rowling's Harry Potter series created a wonderful fantasy world set in the ancient city of Oxford.
In line with this Oxford fantasy, Babel vividly portrays life in Oxford in the early Victorian era, that is, in the 19th century, like a movie, based on the author's study abroad experience, where he received a master's degree in Chinese studies from Oxford University, and details from various historical records and literary works.


Following the protagonists' paths as they crisscross the main stages of University College, the Radcliffe Camera, the Bodleian Library, and the High Street and Broad Street, which are lined with various shops, it feels as if you are taking a city tour of Oxford. This is why 'Babel' is called the most notable masterpiece in the dark academia genre since the 'Harry Potter' series.


A revolution for the future or a comfortable present?
Colonial children selected as agents of imperialism

The protagonists of this novel, with the exception of Letitia Price, have one thing in common: they are of colonial origin.
Because the Silver Rod magic, which was the foundation of the British Empire's mighty superpower, required users of various languages, Babel (the Royal Institute of Translators) selected children with exceptional linguistic talents from colonies such as China and India as scholarship students.


Robin Swift: The illegitimate child of Professor Lovell, the leader of Babel, through a political relationship with a Chinese woman in Guangdong, China.
She grew up learning English from a British maid hired by Professor Lovell, and after her mother died from an epidemic, she was taken to England by Professor Lovell, who came to visit her home.


Ramiz Rafi Mirza: A linguistic genius from Calcutta, India, fluent in Urdu, Arabic, Persian, English, Latin, Greek, Spanish, and Italian.
Rami's family worked as servants in the home of Lord Wilson, a British aristocrat. He was noticed by Lord Wilson for his extraordinary memory and eloquence, and received an elite education.


Victoire Degrave: Haitian in the West Indies, fluent in Kreyol, French, Greek and Latin.
After working as a maid (effectively a slave) for an elite family in France via England, she entered Babel through an introduction by her employer.


Letty (Letitia Price): The daughter of a British Navy admiral, she has a great talent for languages, but due to gender discrimination, she is scheduled to marry against her will. After the suicide of her brother, an Oxford student, she barely manages to enter Babel.


Griffin Swift: Professor Lovell's son from a political relationship with a Chinese woman in Macau, China, before Robin.
That is, Robin's half-brother.
Realizing that Babel is a puppet of the British Empire, he joins the anti-establishment organization Hermes Society and leads a violent struggle.