Literary criticism can be no more than a reasoned account of the feeling produced upon the critic by the book he is criticizing. Criticism can never be a science: it is, in the first place, much too personal, and in the second, it is concerned with values that science ignores. The touchstone is emotion, not reason. We judge a work of art by its effect on our sincere and vital emotion, and nothing else. All the critical twiddle-twaddle about style and form, all this pseudoscientific classifying and analyzing of books in an imitation-botanical fashion, is mere impertinence and mostly dull jargon.

Summary

This quote argues that literary criticism is subjective and rooted in the personal emotions and values of the critic. It rejects the idea that criticism can ever be a science because it is not based solely on reason or objective analysis. Instead, the quote suggests that the evaluation of a piece of literature should be based on its ability to evoke sincere and powerful emotions in the reader. The quote dismisses the excessive focus on stylistic and formal aspects of a book, deeming it irrelevant and uninteresting. Overall, it advocates for a more intuitive and emotional approach to literary criticism.

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