《英语考试高级阅读文选》
Classic Literature
The large majority of our fellow citizens care as much about literature as they
care about archaeology or the program of the legislature. They do not entirely
ignore it; they are not quite indifferent to it. But their interest in it is fa-
int and perfunctory; or, if their interest happens to be intense, it is spasmod-
ic. Ask the two hundred thousand persons whose enthusiasm made the vogue of a p-
opular novel ten years ago what they think of that novel now, and you will gath-
er that they have utterly forgotten it.
In the face of this, one may ask: Why does the great and universal fame of clas-
sic authors continue? The answer is that the fame of classic authors is entirely
independent of the majority. Do you suppose that if the fame of Shakespeare dep-
ended on the man in the street it would survive for a fortnight? The fame of cl-
assic authors is originally made, and it is maintained, by a passionate few.
Even on those rare occassions when a first-calss author has enjoyed immense suc-
cess during his lifetime, the majority have never appreciated him so sincerely
as they have appreciated second-rate writers. The first-class author has always
been reinforced by the ardor of the passionate few. And in the case of an author
who emerged into glory after his death, this has been due solely to the obstina-
te perseverance of the few. They kept on savoring him, and talking about him, a-
nd buying him, and they generally behaved with such eager zeal, and they were so
authoritative and sure of themselves, that at last the majority grew accustomed
to the sound of his name and placidly agreed to proposition that he was a geniu-
s. The majority really did not care very much either way.
What causes the passionate few to make such a fuss about literature? There can
be only one reply. They find a keen and lasting pleasure in it. They enjoy lite-
rature as some people enjoy beer. And what are the qualities of a book which gi-
ve keen and lasting pleasure to the passionate few? This is a question so diffi-
cult that it has never yet been completely answered. You may talk lightly about
truth, insight, knowledge, wisdom, humor, and beauty, but these comfortable wor-
ds do not really carry you very far, for each of them has to be defined, especi-
ally the first and last. It is all very well for Keats in his airy manner to as-
sert that beauty is truth, truth is beauty, and that is all he knows or needs to
know. I, for one, need to know a lot more. And I shall never know. Nobody, not
even a great critic like Hazily or Sainte-Beuve, has ever finally explained why
he thought a book beautiful.
A classic is work which gives pleasure to the minority which is intensely perma-
nently interested in literature. It lives on because the minority, eager to ren-
ew the sensation of pleasure, is eternally curious and is therefore engaged in
an eternal process of rediscovery. A classic does not survive for any ethical r-
eason. It does not survive because it conforms to certain canons or rules. It s-
urvives because it is a source of pleasure.
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