Photo source: Wikimedia Commons
George Henry Lewes (1817-1878) was a British literary critic best known for his philosophical approach to literature. The Encyclopedia Britannica says,
"A versatile writer and thinker in many fields, Lewes contributed significantly to the development of empirical metaphysics; his treatment of mental phenomena as related to social and historical conditions was a major advance in psychological thought."The rest of this post is some quotes from Lewes.
Simplicity
"There are occasions when the simplest and fewest words surpass in effect all the wealth of rhetorical amplification." (The Principles of Success in Literature, 1865)
"...it is in the selection of the characteristic details that the artistic power is manifested." (The Principles of Success in Literature, 1865)
"Although the mind instinctively rejects all needless complexity, we shall greatly err if we fail to recognize the fact, that what the mind recoils from is not the complexity, but the needlessness." (The Principles of Success in Literature, 1865)
Literature and thought
"[The great writer] knows how to blend vividness with vagueness, knows where images are needed and where by their vivacity they would be obstacles to the rapid appreciation of thought." (The Principles of Success in Literature, 1865)
"The magic of the pen lies in the concentration of your thoughts upon one object." (AZquotes.com)
"An energetic crudity, even a riotous absurdity, has more promise in it than a clever and elegant mediocrity because it shows that the young man is speaking out of his own heart, and struggling to express himself in his own way rather than in the way he finds other men's books." (The Principles of Success in Literature, 1865)
Imagination and discovery
"Everyone who has seriously investigated a novel question, who has really interrogated nature with a view to a distinct answer, will bear me out in saying that it requires intense and sustained effort of imagination." (The Principles of Success in Literature, 1865)
"Where sense observes two isolated objects, imagination discloses two related objects. We had not see it before; it is apparent now." (The Principles of Success in Literature, 1865)
"Artists brood over the chaos of their suggestions, and thus shape them into creations." (The Principles of Success in Literature, 1865)
