Lending a favorite book has its risks; the borrower may not like it. I still don't know a better novel than Crime and Punishment—still, every fourth or fifth borrower returns it unfinished: it depresses him; besides that, he didn't believe it. More borrowers than this return the first volume of Remembrance of Things Past unfinished: they were bored. There is no book you can lend people that all of them will like.


An Unread Book, p. 50 - The Third Book of Criticism (1969)

Randall Jarrell Quotes

Lending a favorite book has its risks; the borrower may not like it. I still don't know a better novel than Crime and Punishment—still, every...

Lending a favorite book has its risks; the borrower may not like it. I still don't know a better novel than Crime and Punishment—still, every...

Lending a favorite book has its risks; the borrower may not like it. I still don't know a better novel than Crime and Punishment—still, every...

Lending a favorite book has its risks; the borrower may not like it. I still don't know a better novel than Crime and Punishment—still, every...