English writer Samuel Johnson, in the preface to his 1765 edition of Shakespeare‘s plays, observed that ―nothing can please many, and please long, but just representations of general nature.‖ Accordingly, he praised Shakespeare for creating universal characters ―who act and speak as the reader thinks that he should himself have spoken or acted on the same occasion.‖ - English writer Samuel Johnson, in the preface to his 1765 edition of Shakespeare‘s plays, observed that ―nothing can please many, and please long, but just representations of general nature.‖ Accordingly, he praised Shakespeare for creating universal characters ―who act and speak as the reader thinks that he should himself have spoken or acted on the same occasion.‖
- Yet Johnson could not help objecting to what he saw as the playwright‘s ―lack of obvious moral purpose‖ and ―gross jests.‖ In an earlier essay, ―On Fiction‖ (1750), Johnson cautioned against the unselective realism of popular novels written chiefly for ―the young, the ignorant, and the idle.‖
In his view, such people are easily tempted to imitate the novelist‘s portrayal of ―those parts of nature‖ which are ―discolored by passion, or deformed by wickedness.‖ - In his view, such people are easily tempted to imitate the novelist‘s portrayal of ―those parts of nature‖ which are ―discolored by passion, or deformed by wickedness.‖
- Mindful of the impact of literature on the minds of all readers, Johnson demanded that vice, if it must be shown, should appear disgusting, and that virtue should not be represented in an extreme form because people would never emulate what they cannot believe—implausibly virtuous heroes or heroines, for example.
In her pioneering work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), English writer Mary Wollstonecraft addressed the specific situation of women readers. She denounced shallow novelists, who she felt knew little about human nature and wrote ―stale tales‖ in an overly sentimental style. Since most women of her day received little education, Wollstonecraft feared that reading such novels would further hinder women‘s ―neglected minds‖ in ―the right use of reason.‖ - In her pioneering work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), English writer Mary Wollstonecraft addressed the specific situation of women readers. She denounced shallow novelists, who she felt knew little about human nature and wrote ―stale tales‖ in an overly sentimental style. Since most women of her day received little education, Wollstonecraft feared that reading such novels would further hinder women‘s ―neglected minds‖ in ―the right use of reason.‖
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