Carolina QuotesOne of the most puzzling things about a novel is that “the way it really was” half the time is, and half the time isn’t, the way it ought to be in the novel.
Randall Jarrell Carolinian
Source
“An Unread Book”, p. 46
- work
- The Third Book of Criticism (1969)
- year
- 1969
- locator
- p. 46
Cite this record
“One of the most puzzling things about a novel is that “the w…” Randall Jarrell. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-FAE386332F. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/fae386332f
More from Randall Jarrell
...when General Eisenhower defined an intellectual as “a man who takes more words than is necessary to tell more than he knows”, he was speaking not as a Republican but as an American.
I think Miss Moore was right to cut “The Steeple-Jack” — the poem seems plainer and clearer in its shortened state — but she has cut too much... The reader may feel like saying, “Let her do as she pleases with the poem; it’s hers, isn’t it?” No; it’s much too good a poem for that, it long ago became everybody’s, and we can protest just as we could if Donatello cut off David’s left leg.
Carl Becker has defined a professor as a man who thinks otherwise; a scholar is a man who otherwise thinks.