Literary criticism can be no more than a reasoned account of the feeling produced upon the critic by the book he is criticizing. Criticism can never be a science: it is, in the first place, much too personal, and in the second, it is concerned with values that science ignores. The touchstone is emotion, not reason. We judge a work of art by its effect on our sincere and vital emotion, and nothing else. All the critical twiddle-twaddle about style and form, all this pseudoscientific classifying and analysing of books in an imitation-botanical fashion, is mere impertinence and mostly dull jargon.

About This Quote

About D.H. Lawrence

D.H. Lawrence was a 19th-century English writer and poet. David Herbert Lawrence was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, literary critic, travel writer, essayist, and painter. His modernist works reflect on modernity, social alienation and industrialisation, while championing sexuality, vitality and instinct. Read more on Wikipedia →

Themes

  • Art — Creativity, expression, and the role of art in society
  • Science — Discovery, inquiry, and the wonders of the natural world

More quotes by D.H. Lawrence

Related Quotes