The Library of Babel is a 7-page short story narrated by an unnamed narrator with footnotes by a fictional editor. The narrator begins by introducing the Library, which is "indefinite, perhaps infinite" (112) and makes up the whole universe in the story. The narrator describes the physical appearance of the Library: identical hexagonal galleries bordered by bookshelves. The hexagons are connected horizontally by small corridors and vertically by ventilation shafts.
The narrator goes on to tell the reader about various philosophical conclusions he and other librarians have come to about the library. The two central axioms are that the Library has always existed and that, because there are only 25 symbols used in all the books in the library in different combinations, every book that can exist does exist. The denizens of the library have gone through many different stages: ecstatic hope that the books will solve every problem; frantic searches for specific books; destruction of seemingly worthless or impenetrable books; and mass killing of themselves or others in despair when their hopes are thwarted.
The narrator, an old man at the time he is writing, admits to searching for the "catalog of catalogs" (112) when he was younger. Even as he approaches death, he hopes that The Book-Man, a librarian who has read the catalog of all other books, exists. He also says that he has come to conclusion that all of the books in the Library have meaning, even those the reader may not understand due to the language they are written in. The narrator concludes the story with the idea that the Library may be infinite, but the number of books is certainly not, meaning it may be the case that "the Library is unlimited but periodic" (118). He is happy about this idea of overarching order.
