Through the Language Glass

“A marvelous and surprising book. The ironic, playful tone at the beginning gradates into something serious that is never pompous, something intellectually and historically complex and yet always pellucidly laid out. It left me breathless and dizzy with delight.”—Stephen Fry, presenter of Stephen Fry in America, host of QI, and author of Moab Is My Washpot

“Through The Language Glass is so robustly researched and wonderfully told that it is hard to put down . . . Deutscher brings together more than a century’s worth of captivating characters, incidents, and experiments that illuminate the relationship between words and mind . . . He makes a convincing case for the influence of language on thought, and in doing so he reveals as much about the way color words shape our perception as about the way that scientific dogma and fashion can blind us.”—Christine Kenneally, New Scientist

“This fabulously interesting book describes an area of intellectual history replete with brilliant leaps of intuition and crazy dead-ends. Guy Deutscher, who combines enthusiasm with scholarly pugnacity, is a vigorous and engaging guide to it . . . A remarkably rich, provocative, and intelligent work.”—Sam Leith, The Sunday Times (UK)

“A brilliant account of linguistic research over two centuries… As befits a book about language, this inspiring amalgam of cultural history and science is beautifully written.”—Clive Cookson, Financial Times (UK)

“Fascinating and well written . . . Deutscher’s scholarly and eloquent prose made the book an enjoyable read and I learnt lots of great anecdotes along the way.”—Alex Bellos, The Guardian (UK)

“A most entertaining book, easy to read but packed with fascinating detail.”—Michael Quinion, World Wide Words

“At once highly readable and thoroughly learned . . . Here is an important and original new history of the struggle to understand how language, culture, and thought are connected.”—Joan Bybee, Distinguished Professor of Linguistics, University of New Mexico