" 'What are you reading, Miss ---?' 'Oh! It's only a novel!' replies the young lady; while she lays down her book with affected indifference, or momentary shame. 'It is only Cecilia, or Camilla, or Belinda'; or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed; in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit or humour, are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language."
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey, quoted in The Book Lovers' Anthology: A Compendium of Writing About Books, Readers and Libraries
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