“Richardson' moralizing novels contain the germ of the most immoral art that has ever existed, namely the incitement to indulge in those wish-fantasies in which decency is only a means to an end, and the inducement to occupy oneself to mere illusions instead of striving for the solution of the real problems of life. They also, for that reason, denote one of the most important dividing lines in the history of modern literature; previously the works of an author were either really moral or immoral, but since his time the books which want to appear moral in most cases merely moralize. In the struggle against the upper classes the bourgeois loses his innocence, and as he has to emphasize his virtue all too often, he becomes a hypocrite.” ArtFictionHypocriteBourgeoisWish FulfillmentPre RomanticismMoralizeReading Public Book:The Social History of Art Volume 3: Rococo, Classicism and Romanticism Source: The Social History of Art Volume 3: Rococo, Classicism and Romanticism