Quotes: Literary Scholarship (1)

Lit scholarship vi Forget the commentaries. Read the original sources. "The motivation of humanist scholarship was…scientific—the recovery of the original historical evidence and the casting aside of the second-hand accounts, commentaries and glosses which over the centuries had become substitutes for the study of the original sources of European thought and culture." Introd. John Anthony Scott. Sir Thomas More, Utopia.

Literary critic 318 The true critic uses several different methods of looking at literary works. "The true critic...will never suffer himself to be limited to any settled custom of thought, or stereotyped mode of looking at things." Oscar Wilde, “The True Critic.” 1891. Gross, ed. Essays.

Literary Criticism 1235 The critic needs to have empathy for the writer. "Sympathy, methinks, should have some little share in the critic’s qualifications, murmured Eustace Bright." “Tanglewood Fireside. Introductory to ‘The Three golden Apples’” Hawthorne’s The Wonder Book for Boys and Girls

Literary criticism 286 "Big book, big bore." Callimachus. 3rd century BC. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Literary criticism 53 You have to have the experience of aging and be willing to take the time to read and enjoy Proust. "You have to be over thirty to enjoy Proust." Gore Vidal. Portable Curmudgeon.