Ruskin says that anyone who expects perfection.... : Quote by Randall Jarrell

“ Ruskin says that anyone who expects perfection from a work of art knows nothing of works of art. This is an appealing sentence that, so far as I can see, is not true about a few pictures and statues and pieces of music, short stories and short poems. Whether or not you expect perfection from them, you get it; at least, there is nothing in them that you would want changed. But what Ruskin says is true about novels: anyone who expects perfection from even the greatest novel knows nothing of novels. ”

Randall Jarrell
  • From : No Other Book: Selected Essays
  • Report, if you have a problem with this page