Wednesday, May 27, 2009

On Modern Literature...

"I am heartily sick of books from Caxley library -- all termed 'powerful' by their reviewers (and in future I shall steer clear of any with this label) which give the suffering reader a detailed account of the bodily functions of their main characters. If the author has such a paucity of ideas that he must pad out his 300 pages with reiterated comments on his hero's digestive, alimentary and productive systems I am sorry for him; but I don't see why he should be encouraged.

To have a heroine who does nothing but climb, regularly every thirty pages, from one bed into another is, to my mind, not only inartistic. It is worse. It is tedious."

--Village Diary, Miss Read

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