Why a classic is a classic (Arnold Bennet)学习资料

1、 why a classic isa classic (arnoldbennet) why a classic is a classicby arnold bennettthe large majority of our fellow-citizens care as much about literature as they careabout aeroplanes or the programme of the legislature. they do not ignore it; they arenot quite indifferent to it. but their interes

2、t in it is faint and perfunctory; or, if theirinterest happens to be violent, it is spasmodic. ask the two hundred thousand personswhose enthusiasm made the vogue of a popular novel ten years ago what they think ofthat novel now, and you will gather that they have utterly forgotten it, and that they

3、would no more dream of reading it again than of reading bishop stubbss selectcharters. probably if they did read it again they would not enjoy itnot because thesaid novel is a whit worse now than it was ten years ago; not because their taste hasimprovedbut because they have not had sufficient practi

4、ce to be able to rely on theirtaste as a means of permanent pleasure. they simply dont know from one day to thenext what will please them.in the face of this one may ask: why does the great and universal fame of classicalauthors continue? the answer is that the fame of classical authors is entirelyi

5、ndependent of the majority. do you suppose that if the fame of shakespearedepended on the man in the street it would survive a fortnight? the fame of classicalauthors is originally made, and it is maintained, by a passionate few. even when afirst-class author has enjoyed immense success during his l

6、ifetime, the majority havenever appreciated him so sincerely as they have appreciated second-rate men. he hasalways been reinforced by the ardour of the passionate few. and in the case of anauthor who has emerged into glory after his death the happy sequel has been duesolely to the obstinate perseve

7、rance of the few. they could not leave him alone; theywould not. they kept on savouring him, and talking about him, and buying him, andthey generally behaved with such eager zeal, and they were so authoritative and sureof themselves, that at last the majority grew accustomed to the sound of his name

8、 andplacidly agreed to the proposition that he was a genius; the majority really did notcare very much either way.and it is by the passionate few that the renown of genius is kept alive from onegeneration to another. these few are always at work. they are always rediscoveringgenius. their curiosity

9、and enthusiasm are exhaustless, so that there is little chance ofgenius being ignored. and, moreover, they are always working either for or againstthe verdicts of the majority. the majority can make a reputation, but it is too carelessto maintain it. if, by accident, the passionate few agree with th

10、e majority in aparticular instance, they will frequently remind the majority that such and such areputation has been made, and the majority will idly concur: “ah, yes. by the way, we must not forget that such and such a reputation exists.” without that persistentmemory-jogging the reputation would q

11、uickly fall into the oblivion which is death.the passionate few only have their way by reason of the fact that they are genuinelyinterested in literature, that literature matters to them. they conquer by their obstinacyalone, by their eternal repetition of the same statements. do you suppose they co

12、uldprove to the man in the street that shakespeare was a great artist? the said man wouldnot even understand the terms they employed. but when he is told ten thousand times,and generation after generation, that shakespeare was a great artist, the said manbelievesnot by reason, but by faith. and he t

13、oo repeats that shakespeare was a greatartist, and he buys the complete works of shakespeare and puts them on his shelves,and he goes to see the marvellous stage-effects which accompany king lear orhamlet, and comes back religiously convinced that shakespeare was a greatartist. all because the passi

14、onate few could not keep their admiration of shakespeareto themselves. this is not cynicism; but truth. and it is important that those who wishto form their literary taste should grasp it.what causes the passionate few to make such a fuss about literature? there can beonly one reply. they find a kee

15、n and lasting pleasure in literature. they enjoyliterature as some men enjoy beer. the recurrence of this pleasure naturally keepstheir interest in literature very much alive. they are for ever making new researches,for ever practising on themselves. they learn to understand themselves. they learn t

16、oknow what they want. their taste becomes surer and surer as their experiencelengthens. they do not enjoy to-day what will seem tedious to them to-morrow. whenthey find a book tedious, no amount of popular clatter will persuade them that it ispleasurable; and when they find it pleasurable no chill s

17、ilence of the street-crowdswill affect their conviction that the book is good and permanent. they have faith inthemselves. what are the qualities in a book which give keen and lasting pleasure tothe passionate few? this is a question so difficult that it has never yet beencompletely answered. you ma

18、y talk lightly about truth, insight, knowledge, wisdom,humour, and beauty. but these comfortable words do not really carry you very far, foreach of them has to be defined, especially the first and last. it is all very well for keatsin his airy manner to assert that beauty is truth, truth beauty, and

19、 that that is all heknows or needs to know. i, for one, need to know a lot more. and i never shall know.nobody, not even hazlitt nor sainte-beuve, has ever finally explained why he thoughta book beautiful. i take the first fine lines that come to handthe woods of arcady are dead,and over is their an

20、tique joyand i say that those lines are beautiful, because they give me pleasure. but why? noanswer! i only know that the passionate few will, broadly, agree with me in derivingthis mysterious pleasure from those lines. i am only convinced that the liveliness ofour pleasure in those and many other l

21、ines by the same author will ultimately causethe majority to believe, by faith, that w.b. yeats is a genius. the one reassuring aspect of the literary affair is that the passionate few are passionate about the samethings. a continuance of interest does, in actual practice, lead ultimately to the sam

22、ejudgments. there is only the difference in width of interest. some of the passionatefew lack catholicity, or, rather, the whole of their interest is confined to one narrowchannel; they have none left over. these men help specially to vitalise the reputationsof the narrower geniuses: such as crashaw

23、. but their active predilections nevercontradict the general verdict of the passionate few; rather they reinforce it.a classic is a work which gives pleasure to the minority which is intensely andpermanently interested in literature. it lives on because the minority, eager to renewthe sensation of p

24、leasure, is eternally curious and is therefore engaged in an eternalprocess of rediscovery. a classic does not survive for any ethical reason. it does notsurvive because it conforms to certain canons, or because neglect would not kill it. itsurvives because it is a source of pleasure, and because the passionate few can nomore neglect it than a bee can neglect a flower. the passionate few do not read “th