Читать книгу Literature, American Style - Ezra Tawil - Страница 6

The literature that should characterize a great people is always interesting to examine, I believe: the literature of an enlightened people, who have established liberty, political equality, and manners in harmony with such institutions. Right now the Americans are the only nation in the universe to which these reflections are applicable. Americans may still have no developed literature, but when their men in public office are called upon to address public opinion they obviously possess the gift of touching the soul’s affections with simple truths and pure feelings. Anyone who can do this already knows the most useful secrets of style.

—Germaine de Staël, On Literature (1800)