“If the masses are not thrown a few novels, they may react by throwing up a few barricades.”

Source: 1980s, Literary Theory: An Introduction (1983), Chapter 1, p. 21

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Do you have more details about the quote "If the masses are not thrown a few novels, they may react by throwing up a few barricades." by Terry Eagleton?
Terry Eagleton photo
Terry Eagleton 57
British writer, academic and educator 1943

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“This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.”

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Quoted in The Algonquin Wits (1968) edited by Robert E. Drennan, and The Dispatch http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=r04cAAAAIBAJ&sjid=WFEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7250,5269688&dq=aside-lightly+dorothy-parker&hl=en (October 1962). As noted at Snopes, Drennan's source seems to be a Parker review which does not seem to contain this quote. If Parker wrote this statement anywhere the primary source seems to have gone missing.
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