次の文章は、
http://toro.2ch.net/test/read.cgi/book/1356180563/l50
という場所にある「マルセル・プルーストのスレ」の 482 番で、Gさんが紹介してくれたものです。
勝手ながら、ここでも掲載させてもらいます。

It is simple enough to say that since books have classes--fiction, biography, poetry
--we should separate them and take from each what it is right that each should give us.
Yet few people ask from books what books can give us. Most commonly we come to books with
blurred and divided minds, asking of fiction that it shall be true, of poetry that it
shall be false, of biography that it shall be flattering, of history that it shall enforce
our own prejudices. If we could banish all such preconceptions when we read, that would be
an admirable beginning. Do not dictate to your author; try to become him. Be his fellow-worker
and accomplice. If you hang back, and reserve and criticise at first, you are preventing
yourself from getting the fullest possible value from what you read. But if you open your
mind as widely as possible, then signs and hints of almost imperceptible fineness, from
the twist and turn of the first sentences, will bring you into the presence of a human
being unlike any other. Steep yourself in this, acquaint yourself with this, and soon
you will find that your author is giving you, or attempting to give you, something far
more definite.
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