"Literary excellence is the chief pleasure in reading..."

"I hold on to my faith that enough people can tell the difference between a good novel and a bad one, and take the risk of saying that literary excellence is the chief pleasure in reading, but another is how one may use a novel or tale for information.  Literature maps the world for us, fleshing out what we get from newspaper articles and television reports, giving us a parallel landscape infinitely rich and various where we may stroll any time we like, tourists in imaginary worlds that mirror real ones.  What did we know about the feel, taste, texture, the airs and aromas of South America before the recent explosion of wonderful South American novels, most translated into English?  Or about Africa until the novels written by Africans in English, which issued from one end of the continent to the other?.... ~ we are invited in, for writers are like hosts:  come and share this with me."

~ Doris Lessing (b. Oct. 22, 1919) British novelist, poet.  Forward to The Cambridge Guide to LITERATURE IN ENGLISH, Ian Ousby. 1993

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