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Quote by Steven Moore

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The Novel: An Alternative History, 1600-1800

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Steven Moore

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“And if the novel [The Education of Cyrus] remains dull by modern standards, we have to remind ourselves Xenophon didn't set out to write a "novel" — there was no such thing yet in his culture — but was feeling his way to a new form somewhere between factual history and fanciful epic. Our hat is always off to innovators.”

“I suppose someone could trawl through the 383 volumes of Migne's Patrologiae Cursus Completus and extract some book-length hagiographies that qualify as novels — there had to be a few protonovelists who adopted hagiography as the only game in town, as painters of religious subjects learned to do — but that someone isn't me.”

“Readers have been so conditioned that they feel embarrassed to admit that they find it hard to stomach the work of a literary giant for fear it would betray their plebian taste. The fact is that a few read, and fewer enjoy, the novels of those who sit on the literary pedestal. We have allowed ourselves to be persuaded that a book with a story can't be quite in the same class as a book that leaves us to interpret what is unsaid.”

“He ran away a lot after that, still trying to find something exciting to make life less dull. His parents always said he was never satisfied, and would never be satisfied even if he found what he was looking for. Duncan hoped that wasn't true, but he wasn't sure. Taylor walked alongside Duncan, stepping on all of the fallen autumn leaves, and Duncan was sure it was a new song creating itself. That's how Taylor was. He heard music in the wind and in the crunch of leaves and new songs were growing out of his ears and Duncan was lost. That was it, he realized. Lost.”