“No two persons ever read the same book.”

— Edmund Wilson

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Edmund Wilson 6

American writer, literary and social critic, and noted man … 1895–1972

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“In a sense, one can never read the book that the author originally wrote, and one can never read the same book twice.”

Edmund Wilson (1895–1972) American writer, literary and social critic, and noted man of letters

The Triple Thinkers (1938) [Oxford University Press, 1948], Preface, p. ix

“Books, books, books. It was not that I read so much. I read and re-read the same ones. But all of them were necessary to me. Their presence, their smell, the letters of their titles, and the texture of their leather bindings.”

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“There are books so alive that you're always afraid that while you weren't reading, the book has gone and changed, has shifted like a river; while you went on living, it went on living too, and like a river moved on and moved away. No one has stepped twice into the same river. But did anyone ever step twice into the same book?”

Marina Tsvetaeva (1892–1941) Russian poet and writer

Есть книги настолько живые, но все боишься, что, пока не читал, она уже изменилась, как река — сменилась, пока жил — тоже жила, как река — шла и ушла. Никто дважды не вступал в ту же реку. А вступал ли кто дважды в ту же книгу?
Pushkin and Pugachev (1937)

“No two persons ever read the same book.”

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