Sydney Smith Quotes
The main question to a novel is -- did it amuse? were you surprised at dinner coming so soon? did you mistake eleven for ten? were you too late to dress? and did you sit up beyond the usual hour? If a novel produces these effects, it is good; if it does not -- story, language, love, scandal itself cannot save it. It is only meant to please; and it must do that or it does nothing.
Citations
Smith, Sydney. "Review of Granby." The Edinburgh Review, vol. 43, no. 86, Feb. 1826, p. 395.
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Sydney Smith was an English wit, writer and Anglican cleric.