Francis George Steiner,[1] FBA (born April 23, 1929)[2] is a French-born[3] American literary critic, essayist, philosopher, novelist, and educator.[4] He has written extensively about the relationship between language, literature and society, and the impact of the Holocaust.[5] An article in The Guardian described Steiner as a "polyglot and polymath", saying that he is either "often credited with recasting the role of the critic", or a "pretentious namedropper" whose "range comes at the price of inaccuracy" and "complacency".[6]