Excerpt from The Life Work of Henri Rene Guy De Maupassant, Embracing Romance, Comedy Verse, for the First Time Complete in English

I have no intention of pleading here for the novel that follows. On the contrary, the ideas that I am going to try to express deal with the criticism of that description of psychological study which is shown in "Pierre and Jean," as well as with novels in general. I am not the only writer to whom one particular reproach is addressed every time he brings out a new book. In the midst of eulogistic phrases, I regularly find the following from the pen of the same critic: "The greatest defect of this book is that it is not, properly speaking, a novel." I might reply in the same terms: "The greatest defect of the writer who does me the honor to review me is that he is not a critic."

What, in fact, are the earmarks of a critic?

It is necessary that, without bias, without preconceived notions, without ideas of any "school" or special regard for any one class of artists, he should comprehend, distinguish, and explain the most opposite tendencies and the most contrary temperaments, and admit and accept the most diverse efforts of art.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. Это и многое другое вы найдете в книге The Life Work of Henri Rene Guy De Maupassant, Embracing Romance, Comedy Verse, for the First Time Complete in English (Classic Reprint) (Guy de Maupassant)