“ But critics, for the most part, are only readers; whence it comes that they almost always find fault with us on wrong grounds, or compliment us without reserve or measure. ”
Guy de Maupassant, Pierre and Jean (1888). copy citation
| Author | Guy de Maupassant |
|---|---|
| Source | Pierre and Jean |
| Topic | critics compliments |
| Date | 1888 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | Translated by Clara Bell |
| Weblink | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Pierre_and_Jean_(Bell,_1902) |
Context
“His intelligence, open to everything, must so far supersede his individuality as to leave him free to discover and praise books which as a man he may not like, but which as a judge he must duly appreciate.
But critics, for the most part, are only readers; whence it comes that they almost always find fault with us on wrong grounds, or compliment us without reserve or measure. The reader, who looks for no more in a book than that it should satisfy the natural tendencies of his own mind, wants the writer to respond to his predominant taste, and he invariably praises a work or a passage which appeals to his imagination, whether idealistic, gay, licentious, melancholy, dreamy or positive, as "striking" or "well written."
” source
But critics, for the most part, are only readers; whence it comes that they almost always find fault with us on wrong grounds, or compliment us without reserve or measure. The reader, who looks for no more in a book than that it should satisfy the natural tendencies of his own mind, wants the writer to respond to his predominant taste, and he invariably praises a work or a passage which appeals to his imagination, whether idealistic, gay, licentious, melancholy, dreamy or positive, as "striking" or "well written."
” source
