If Brideshead Revisited is not a great book, it's so like a great book that many of us, at least while reading it, find it hard to tell the difference.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Waugh admits Brideshead Revisited may not be great but mimics greatness so well it fools readers.
- In plain terms
- The book feels great even if it isn't truly one.
- What can you take from it?
- Imitation of style can mimic substance.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Does style make a book great?
- How do you judge literary quality?
Another view
Some works succeed by evoking feeling rather than structural perfection.
More from Evelyn Waugh
Art is the symbol of the two noblest human efforts: to construct and to refrain from destruction.
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