Intensive Reading

Intensive Reading

Too Many Books

by Gilbert Norwood

When Julius Caesar allowed the Library of Alexandria to burn, excellent people no doubt exclaimed：“Lo, another cord added to the scourge of war！” Certainly countless students since the Revival of Learning have looked upon that conflagration as one of the world’s disasters．It was no such thing, but a vast benefit．And one of the worst modern afflictions is the printing-press; for its diabolical power of multiplication has enabled literature to laugh at sudden mischance and deliberate enmity. We are oppressed, choked, buried by books.

The beginning of the essay gives readers a foretaste of the author’s mock seriousness, the tone that is to pervade the entire writing and characterizes British humor as well．On the surface, Norwood stresses in a matter-of-fact way the negative effects of the invention of the printing-press, making the destruction of the Library of Alexandria appear as a blessing in disguise．However, readers will come to find the irony in the author’s claims．Bear in mind that the author’s proposal is not to be taken at face value.

Let not the last sentence mislead．I do not mean that we, or some few of us, are asphyxiated by barren learning; that is another story．Nor am I adding yet another voice to the chorus which reviles bad literature—the ceaseless nagging at Miss Ethel M．Dell. I have read none of her books; and in any case that, too, is another story．No; I mean good literature—the books (to take contemporary instances) of Mr．Arnold Bennett and Pierre Loti, of Schnitzler and Mr．Max Beerbohm, and countless others ancient and modern, European, American, Asiatic, and Polynesian (an epoch-making novel from Otaheite is much overdue). And when I say “good,”I mean “good.”I have no intention of imitating those critics whose method of creating a frisson is to select the most distinguished author or artist and then, not call him bad, but imply that he is already recognized as bad by some unnamed and therefore awe-inspiring coterie. They do not write：“Mr．Hardy is a bungler,”but：“Unless Mr．Jugg takes more pains, his work will soon be indistinguishable from Mr．Hardy’s.”

The author emphasizes that his focal point is commonly accepted good literature．A list of four writers led off by Mr．Arnold Bennett represents it.

It was a famous, almost a proverbial, remark that Sappho’s poems were “few, but roses.” What should we say if we found roses on every table, rose-trees along the streets, if our tramcars and lamp-posts were festooned with roses, if roses littered every staircase and dropped from the folds of every newspaper？In a week we should be organizing a “campaign” against them as if they were rats or house-flies．So with books．Week in, week out, a roaring torrent of novels, essays, plays, poems, books of travel, devotion, and philosophy, flows through the land—all good, all “provocative of thought”or else “in the best tradition of British humour;”that is the mischief of it．And they are so huge．Look at The Forsyte Saga, confessedly in itself a small library of fiction; consider The Golden Bough, how it grows. One is tempted to revolt and pretend in self-defense that these works are clever, facile, and bad．But they are not; far from it．The flood leaves you no breath.

The author points out the predicament confronting modern readers, that is, their helplessness in face of a surfeit of multitudinous and voluminous good books．One needs only to browse a nearby bookstore to realize the truth of it.

What is to be done？Various remedies are in vogue, none efficacious, indeed—that is my point—all deleterious．There is nothing for it but burning nine-tenths of the stuff. For consider these remedies.

Pay attention to the author’s manner of argument in the following text．He pretends in real earnest in an effort to convince readers of the validity of his proposal of burning the majority of books by refuting available remedies first and then supplying solutions to supposed technical difficulties, putting it in effect in a logical and systematic way．In the process is revealed the quintessence of his humor：his mock seriousness and deadpanning.

Following is an account of four categories of readers that the author classifies：(1) the non-reader, (2) the selective reader, (3) the literary snob, and (4) the cream reader．Try to sum up their respective characteristics.

First, of course, comes the man who simply gives up, who says：“I haven’t the time,”and goes under. Virtue, they say, is its own reward. Not for him．He tries to pass it off blusteringly but he is ashamed of himself till death.

Second is the man who, swindler though he be, yet merits applause as paying back the “everyone”journalist in his own base coin. He defines in his mind the little patch of literature that he can read, then condemns all the rest on general grounds evolving a formula which shall be vaguely tenable and shall vaguely absolve him．An eager youth asks：“Pray, Sir, what is your opinion of Mrs．Virginia Woolf？” He replies：“No opinion of mine, my dear Guildenstern, would be of much use to you, as regards Mrs．Woolf．I fear I am an old fogey．These modern people seem to me to have lost their way．Fielding and Jane Austen are good enough for me.”Guildenstern retires, suitably abashed, and vaguely classing Mrs．Woolf with Mrs．Bertram Atkey, Alice Meynell with Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

The second type of readers single out a certain patch of literature that every literate person is supposed to read．Then they justify their neglect of other books on the pretext of personal taste by extolling this limited amount of must-reads．In fact, it is a cunning way to conceal their ignorance.

The third man gallantly faces the insoluble problem by following the fashion. Setting his jaw, he specialises in the moderns of whom one reads most in the Times Literary Supplement．Feverishly he cons the work of all authors enshrined in that austere mausoleum; feverishly, because he may at any moment be caught napping by some more alert practitioner. This third section forms the bulk of the educated class．Members are everywhere and spoil everything．Literature has two great uses：The fundamental use is that it creates and satisfies a keener taste for life; the superficial use is that it provides a precious social amenity. Our third man not only knows nothing of the first; he ruins the second. Decent peopleconverse about books with a view to finding common ground and exchanging delight (deep or frivolous) thereon．But the Third Man is mostly anti-social. He selects some voluminous author and catechises his victim till he has found a work which the victim has not read．With a hoot of joyous disgust he leaps upon the confession and extols the unread book as the finest of the list．Such a man will always be found smacking his lips in public over Stevenson’s “Wrong Box”to Lewis Carroll’s “Sylvie and Bruno.”Chief of this tribe, apparently, was no less a person than Coleridge, of whom Hazlitt reports：“He did not speak of his (Butler’s) ‘Analogy,’ but of his ‘Sermons at the Rolls Chapel,’ of which I had never heard．Coleridge somehow always contrived to prefer the unknown to the known. “Exactly; for the great aims of such people are (1) to avoid being scored off; (2) to score off others. It is this ignoble competition which has ruined taste, for to carry it on we must needs follow the crowd．It would never do to enter a room full of persons discussing Masefield or Walter de la Mare and explain wistfully：“I’ve been reading Whittier all day.”Masefield and de la Mare are good—yes, maybe; but we keep up with them not for that reason, but because they are the gods of the literary weeklies. Our notion that commerce is the first of human activities has ruined the noble art of reading; for though competition is the life of trade it is the death of social intercourse and of social arts．The greatest things in life flourish by being shared, not by being monopolized.

Mark the underlined sentence above．The author’s criticism of the snobbish reader reflects his attitude toward arts and social communication．Also, reading is a highly personal affair, and there is no point competing with each other over who has read what.

Our Fourth Class is by far the most respectable. It advocates what may be termed the Cream Theory．“Since we cannot read all the good books, let us attempt to know the best that has been written in all times and places.” So after a solid banquet of English, they move off to Dante (a great man for this class, and read by scarcely anyone else), Goethe, Tolstoy, Racine, Ibsen, Cervantes, Virgil, Homer. A respectable kind of person, we said; but not necessarily sagacious．In fact, they are utterly, almost horribly, mistaken.

For it is an error to suppose that because an author has by the world in general been placed upon a pinnacle, every reader can derive much good from him．Do we not see that a bright boy of twelve finds nothing particular in Milton or Thackeray？(Someone objects：“Oh, but he does！” One in million, my friend; anything beyond that is propagandist falsehood.) Why？Because he is not yet ready for them．They are magnificent, but they wrote for adults—as, unfortunately, most authors have written．Let him gain by experience the needful equipment, and he will appreciate them well enough．And the analogous proposition is true of the Cream Theory．Take a person who has completed the first stage, namely a reading of English, and place him suddenly before those foreign Great Ones．They will bore him to tears．Any dramatic canons drawn exclusively from Shakespeare prove that Racine is a simpleton; any poetical canons, that Virgil is affected, Homer childish, and Dante no poet at all; any psychological canons, that Ibsen is “a dirty old blackguard”(a quotation, this, from a man deeply read in English)．Yes, they are bored to tears; but since our national temperament understands not aesthetic right, only moral right, they feel that they must be wicked if they are bored by great authors. The familiar result follows．Thousands of otherwise honest folk sit flogging themselvesthrough Andromaque or Don Quixote with a dazed sense that they are making the Almighty somehow their debtor. Works like these depend for their true effect upon a whole literary tradition, a whole national culture, unrevealed to the worshipper．Every writer needs a considerable equipment in his reader, and it is precisely the greatest writers (“simple”though they are called by the critics) who demand most．They sum up gigantic experiences of the race in politics, religion, philosophy, literature.

Nevertheless our friend plods on, head bowed and muscles tense．The Cream Theory, even for its most genuine and respectable adherents, is a delusion. That is not the way in which literature “works,”or life．As well saw off the topmost six feet of the Jungfrau, set the mass up in your back-garden, and take your guests out to admire the terrific grandeur of the scenery.

The Cream Theory finds its best expression in those dreadful lists of the World’s Best Books．Everyone who has glanced through those catalogues knows how repellent they are; but does he realise why？It is because they are inhuman. The list is nobody’s list, though it contains something which would be in everybody’s list.

Now prepare yourself for the absurdly interesting proposal of first blacklisting the books to be burned and then of systematically submitting them to “wholesale destruction.”Read the following with an open mind, though, so that you know how true humor tells itself apart from cheap jocosity.

So much for the various types of reader．None of them solves the difficulty．What, then, is to be done？It is no answer to say：“Read what you can, and leave the rest,”because the size of the unread mass has positive and evil effects．In the honest it causes worry, a sense of waste; in the dishonest it causes snobbery and the desire to outshine. There is but one remedy：a wholesale destruction. Quite nine-tenths of the good books should be burnt; of the bad we need say, here as elsewhere, nothing—they are drawn towards the pulping-machine by a force persistent as gravitation. “But,”say some, quoting perchance their own reviews, “your suggestion raises more difficulties than it solves.”Scarcely; but I see two problems, which are by no means so hard to solve as might appear：What are we to destroy？How are we to destroy it？

Let me answer the second question first．When a book is condemned, all public libraries burn their copies with whatever rites may seem fitting to its subject-matter and the occasion．It becomes illegal to possess, buy, sell the book or to expose it for sale．All copies secretly preserved are stripped of their value by an enactment that any person quoting them, referring to them, or in any manner whatsoever seeking personal credit from them, shall be prosecuted under a Disturbance of the Realm Act. A fixed sum should be paid for each copy handed over to the police; that is the way, more or less, in which wolves were extirpated. That great army of persons who thrive on the various forms of bibliography, the booksellers, the librarians, the makers and printers of catalogues, the ghouls who (like vultures on the battle-field) hover over the twopenny box should be told that the state is not robbing them either of livelihood or of excitement. “Of whatever thing a man is a smart guardian,”says Plato, “of that he is also a smart thief.” Let these experts continue their function of tracking books, but for destruction, not preservation. They will not care．What they love is their hard-won knowledge of the quarry, its appearance, methods of concealment, and habitat; not its ultimate destiny．Does the enthusiast who follows the scent of a First Folio across England and at last runs it to earth in an apple-loft, sit down forthwith and read The Merchant of Venice？Not he．If he ever reads the play at all (which is highly doubtful) he prefers a popular edition with pink pictures of the Rialto. For him the chase is all．The new regime will alter his life and enjoyment surprisingly little. He will give interviews with the title, “How I Stamped Out Fielding.” Nor is this the only way in which our newspapers will be brightened．During the first years of the new Golden Age we shall read of a fanatic who, hearing a Cabinet Minister quote the words “as well almost kill a man as kill a good book,” instantly shot him through the head, and of detectives at peril of their lives raiding a den of Wordsworth-printers.

Before we consider the second problem in its main aspect, the selection of the extant works which are to be banned, let us complete the minor task of diminishing heavily the future output．I should favour the absolute prohibition of all novels for the next ten years. Then, during five years only those novels, hitherto held up, should be issued which both publisher and author still thought worthwhile．After that, if people persisted in writing novels, the Government might refuse permits to those treating the following topics：(a) the Great War, (b) girls dressed in salad and living beside lagoons, (c) imaginary kingdoms with regents called Black Boris, (d) any type of “lure.” As for indigenous works other than novels, they might be allowed freedom of publication so long as the price werenot less than one penny a page. This would keep down the output effectually and would also give Cambridge University Press an equal chance with other publishing concerns.

There remains the chief and most arduous task, to decide which books already extant should perish．The work is enormous, and must be spread over many years．Ten thousand per annumseems a likely figure, which could be rapidly increased as the public grew accustomed to the system and observed that the sky did not fall. A committee of fifty (ten of whom must, and all of whom might, be women) should each year promulgate its list, to appear simultaneously with the New Year Honours list. The Committee should contain representatives of every class and—an unusual thing in committees—of every age. First, that the more nervous might be in some degree reassured, they would make a list of books which in any case should be preserved—books which almost everyone really likes and really reads．It would be a surprisingly small list,but there is no danger of our losing Shakespeare, most of Dickens, the Sherlock Holmes stories．This done, they would on each New Year’s Day promulgate their list of ten thousand books.

Nothing, however, is further from my intention than tyranny. All I aim at is effecting what the public in its heart desires.Therefore any of these ten thousand may be saved if it can be shown that the public really wishes to save it．The proof must, however, be given in deeds, not words as heretofore and should be conducted on the following lines．The list is promulgated on January 1st, but the destruction does not begin until August 1st. During July all publishers and librarians are to make a return of the number of persons who during the preceding six months have purchased or read each of the books prescribed. Anyone claiming to have read a book owned by himself would be subjected to a brief oral examination. The works would then be arranged in three categories. Any which had been read by ten thousand people should be struck from the list and given immunity for fifteen years. Those which had been read by less than ten but more than five thousand should be immune for five years．Each work which had found less than five thousand supporters should be retained for one year if any single person could be found to prove his love for it by making a sacrifice to ensure its preservation．This would form the sound test of that “revelling in”authors of which we hear so much.

The time slot from Jan.1 to Aug.1 and “the three categories”are especially interesting．Consider the last category, for instance．Is 1-5,000 a viable range？The only possible conclusion from such much ado about nothing is that in the end NO book is actually burned！

Author

Gilbert Norwood (1880-1954) was born in Sheffield in northern England on Nov.23, 1880．Early in his life, he evinced an aptitude for learning classical languages and won a classical scholarship to St．John’s College, Cambridge．After winning distinctions of every kind in his undergraduate career, he held appointments at Manchester and Cardiff．He went to Toronto as Professor of Latin in 1926 and became Professor of Classics two years later, a position he held down until retirement in 1951．He died as Professor Emeritus of Classics at University College, Toronto in 1954．Norwood is best known for his work on Greek drama, publishing among others The Riddle of the Bacchae：The Last Stage of Euripides’ Religious Views (1908), Greek Tragedy (1920), and Plautus and Terence (1932)．He used to be an avid collector of books．It is very thought-provoking for a true book lover to write about burning books.

Text

Apparently revolting at an increasingly profit-conscious publishing industry and an indiscriminate reading public, he wrote this essay in 1920, which was widely read among the literati of the time．Some called it caustic; others ludicrous, but all agreed that it was “amusing”(TLS)．For those who doubt the essay’s applicability today, American woman writer and critic Evelyn C．Leeper’s remark may be quoted：“If one replaces The Forsyte Saga with The Wheel of Time, and The Golden Bough with Discworld, nothing else need be done to make it as true today as then, or to note that it was as true then as today.”

Further Reading

On Destroying Books, J．C．Squire〈http：//tinyurl.com/oy5e〉

Selected Modern English Essays, (ed.) Humphrey Milford, OUP, 1925

《未晚斋杂览·“书太多了”》吕叔湘著，三联书店，北京，1997

1.   Too Many Books：The most striking feature of this essay is its tinge of British humor, a poker-faced joke told in mock seriousness．Keep this in mind while reading the essay.
2.   Julius Caesar：(100-44 BC) Roman general and statesman, he established the First Triumvirate of Rome with Pompey and Crassus．After a civil war with Pompey, which ended in Pompey’s defeat at Pharsalus (48 BC), Caesar became dictator of the Roman Republic.
3.   the Library of Alexandria：Once the largest of its kind in the world, it is usually assumed to have been established at the beginning of the 3rd century BC during the reign of Ptolemy II of Egypt．The library is estimated to have contained at its peak 400,000 to 700,000 parchment scrolls．Its destruction has remained a mystery, but one of the most popular beliefs is that when Julius Caesar torched the Egyptian fleet of Cleopatra’s brother and rival monarch, the great library of Alexandria was incinerated with about 40,000 volumes burned, and many grammarians, librarians, and scholars killed.
4.   excellent people：Mark the ironic tone as if the author were talking on behalf of literary snobs.
5.   Lo：archaic and poetic form for “look,”often used in “lo and behold”
6.   another cord……of war：another evil committed by war; cord and scourge forming a sustained metaphor
7.   the Revival of Learning：the Renaissance
8.   It was no such thing：an emphatic denial
9.   one of……the printing-press：echoing Benjamin Disraeli (1804-81), the British prime minister who said “Books are fatal：they are the curse of the human race．Nine-tenths of existing books are nonsense, and the clever books are the refutation of that nonsense.”Also, he remarked that“[t]he greatest misfortune that ever befell man was the invention of printing.”
10.   sudden mischance：primarily such natural disasters as floods and fires
11.   deliberate enmity：like banning and burning on purpose
12.   oppressed, choked, buried：the three consecutive verbs growing in intensity
13.   last sentence：the last sentence of the previous paragraph
14.   asphyxiated：a formal word meaning choked or suffocated
15.   barren learning：unproductive, useless learning
16.   Ethel M．Dell：(1881-1939) British woman writer of popular romance novels; her works are severely criticized by some for their sentimentality and lack of intellectual depth.
17.   Arnold Bennett：(1867-1931) British novelist, dramatist, and critic; his most renowned works include Anna of the Five Towns (1902), The Old Wives’ Tale (1908), and the Clayhanger series (1902-08), most of which depict life of the lower middle classes.
18.   Pierre Loti：(1850-1923) French novelist; his voyages as a naval officer provided the exotic settings for works such as Pêcheur d’Islande (1886) and Matelot (1893).
19.   Schnitzler：Arthur (1862-1931) Austrian dramatist, novelist, short story writer, and critic, known for his psychological dramas such as Anatol (1893) and La Ronde (1897) and sometimes erotic novels
20.   Max Beerbohm：(1872-1956) British essayist, caricaturist, and critic, whose major works include Caricatures of Twenty-Five Gentlemen (1896) and the novel Zuleika Dobson (1911) criticizing Oxford academics
21.   an epoch-making……much overdue：Otaheite is an old name for Tahiti, an island in the central South Pacific, one of the Society Islands in French Polynesia．The whole sentence is a bitter satire suggesting the abuse of such critical clichés as “an epoch-making novel.”The author means to say that critics have looked for such a novel in the deserted island of Otaheite for too many years but, to their disappointment, in vain.
22.   frisson：[French] a shiver or thrill
23.   coterie：a small and often exclusive elitist circle
24.   Hardy：apparently Thomas Hardy
25.   Mr．Jugg：a randomly chosen name, anybody who aspires to a writing career
26.   Sappho：(early 7th cent．BC) Greek lyric woman poet who lived on Lesbos; called by Plato the Tenth Muse, she had a large following of women.
27.   few, but roses：a remark by Meleager of Gadara, the compiler of an ancient anthology entitled Garland
28.   campaign：a sanitary campaign
29.   devotion：religious sermons or prayers．John Donne is especially noted for this genre of writing.
30.   mischief：harm, disaster
31.   The Forsyte Saga：a voluminous trilogy written by John Galswothy (1867-1933)．A saga means a collection of fiction or an odyssey.
32.   The Golden Bough：Sir James Frazer (1854-1941) composed it．He collected a host of materials from Polynesian and other tribes．The entire work contains 12 volumes, recording superstitious rituals performed by various primitive peoples in order to conjure up the blessing by God．It is a comparative study of superstitions.
33.   grows：The verb is ingeniously selected to collocate with the [b]ough, a large tree branch, to form a sustained metaphor.
34.   The flood……no breath：This brings back the feeling of asphyxiation in the previous text.
35.   burning nine-tenths of the stuff：Mentioned for the first time is the author’s proposal, which is extremist, unrealistic, specious and, above all, made in a jesting spirit.
36.   goes under：disappears from view as a ship being submerged
37.   Virtue, they……own reward：an English proverb meaning being honest, as a virtue, is always rewarded
38.   pass it off blusteringly：dismiss the issue of reading in aggressive terms decisively
39.   “everyone”journalist：those who publish their articles regularly in newspapers and say that everyone must read them
40.   base coin：“To pay somebody back in his own coin”is an idiom meaning to retaliate somebody by similar means．The word base is added to denote the inferior quality of the metal.
41.   Virginia Woolf：(1882-1941) English woman novelist and essayist; for more details, see The Death of a Moth in the present anthology.
42.   Guildenstern：This may be an allusion to the gullible character in Hamlet by Shakespeare．Guildenstern and Rosencrantz were Hamlet’s friends at the University of Wittenburg, who were sent by Claudius to spy on Hamlet but were consequently trapped by Hamlet.
43.   Fielding：Henry (1707-54) one of the earliest British novelists; his works include Joseph Andrews (1742) and Tom Jones (1749).
44.   Jane Austen：(1775-1817)British female writer, well-known for her penetrating observation of middle-class manners and morality and for her irony, wit, and meticulous style;her novels includePride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma.
45.   suitably abashed：The eager youth was embarrassed because he was led to believe that his taste was not classical enough.
46.   Bertram Atkey：(1880-1952) a minor woman writer of crime novels in the early 20th century, a contemporary of Virginia Woolf’s．The sentence means that Guildenstern receives the false impression that Virginia Woolf was no different from a cheaper writer from the way she was mentioned by the “old fogey.”
47.   Alice Meynell：(1847–1922) English woman poet and essayist, quite influential for a while not only for her literary achievements praised by, say, John Ruskin but also for her involvement in major socio-political issues of her time．Obviously, she is not to be mentioned in the same breath with Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
48.   Ella Wheeler Wilcox：(1850-1919) American woman poet who is commonly regarded as second-rate．Times Literary Supplement (TLS) once remarked that “she was the most popular poet of either sex and of any age, read by thousands, who, however, never opened Shakespeare.”
49.   following the fashion：swimming with the tide, being with-it, jumping on the bandwagon
50.   Setting his jaw：a gesture of painful determination
51.   cons：a colloquial word meaning commits to memory
52.   enshrined：a verb that accords well with the following metaphoric mausoleum
53.   austere mausoleum：a sarcastic metaphor for TLS; a little unfair in the editors’ opinion
54.   practitioner：practitioner of such a conning art．The snobs are trying to remember as much as possible from TLS so that they can talk about it to show themselves off on social occasions．If you know about some authors and books that others do not know, then you triumph over them.
55.   The fundamental……for life：The author is being serious and means what he says.
56.   social amenity：The author is more or less jesting in assigning the second superficial use of literature to enliven social events when people have books to talk about.
57.   Our third……the second：He ruins it because he is always trying to rake in as much as possible that is not known to others．For example, he may pose a lot of strange questions to others so as to make them feel embarrassed not being able to answer them．The third type of readers read books not to acquire a keener sense of life．Nor do they contribute to discussion of books at social functions.
58.   Decent people：in contrast to showy, morbid, or abnormal people like the snobs; decent in the sense that they wish to exchange real pleasures they derive from their reading experiences
59.   anti-social：in the sense that they tend to ruin social amenity
60.   voluminous：A voluminous author is key to the third reader’s finesse because only from such a writer can he find topics for discussion that most others are not well read up in.
61.   catechises：a religious word meaning “poses questions”as by a pastor in a kind of liturgy or religious sermon wherein the congregation are supposed to answer
62.   a hoot of joyous disgust：a very vivid description of the snob．Hoot is an onomatopoeic word showing contempt and disgust mixed with joy of triumph.
63.   Stevenson：Robert Louis (1850-94) Scottish novelist, poet, and travel notes writer, whose most representative works include Treasure Island, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and Kidnapped
64.   Lewis Carroll：(1832-98) English writer of children’s classics, the most famous of which include Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
65.   Butler：Samuel (1612-80) English poet remembered primarily for his three-part satirical poem Hudibras (1663-78), not to be confused with his 19th-century namesake who wrote Erewhon
66.   the Rolls Chapel：an archive in London, first constructed by Henry Ⅲ
67.   to prefer……the known：a bad habit of snobbery typical of the third type of readers
68.   to avoid……off others：These two sentences boil down to one idea：to get the upper hand．By splitting one idea into two sentences, the author achieves the desired effect of satirical emphasis.
69.   needs：an adverb meaning ever
70.   Masefield：John (1878-1967) British writer most notable for his poetry, including the colloquial Everlasting Mercy (1911) and Reynard the Fox (1919)．He became Poet Laureate in 1930.
71.   Walter de la Mare：(1873-1956) English poet remembered for his verse for children
72.   Whittier：John Greenleaf (1807-92) American poet and staunch abolitionist．He is best known for his poems on rural themes, especially “Snow-Bound”(1866).
73.   yes, maybe：Second thoughts make the statement tentative.
74.   literary weeklies：such as TLS
75.   Our Fourth……most respectable：ironic
76.   to know……and places：Traditionalists like Harold Bloom, a Yale University professor of literature, may be counted as a modern exponent of the Cream Theory．He compiles The West Canon and likes to draw up booklists for students．Similarly, the Great Books, 443 in number by 74 authors, espoused by Robert Hutchins and Mortimer Adler of the University of Chicago in the 1950s embody such a theory.
77.   solid：very filling, substantial
78.   Dante：Alighieri (1265–1321) Italian poet, author of The Divine Comedy
79.   read by scarcely anyone else：What an anticlimax！
80.   Goethe, Tolstoy……Virgil, Homer：respectively German, Russian, French, Norwegian, Spanish, ancient Roman, and ancient Greek masters of Some Great Books, all well-known enough to deserve an individual note
81.   Do we not see：Note the rhetorical not in the question, the expected answer to which is “Yes.”
82.   Oh, but he does：Oh, he does derive much good from reading Milton or Thackeray.
83.   One in million：This is my answer.
84.   propagandist falsehood：a downright lie with a view to brainwashing
85.   him：the said boy of twelve
86.   Any dramatic……a simpleton：In the author’s eyes, Shakespeare eclipses the well-known French dramatist in terms of diversity, poetic beauty, in-depth psychological probing, and so forth．In a word, Shakespeare’s works are nonpareil, especially to the native English．And comparing across the boundaries of national cultural backgrounds is beside the point.
87.   they feel……great authors：The readers feel ashamed that they must have been morally deficient in failing to appreciate those great foreign writers.
88.   otherwise：except in matters concerning literary appreciation
89.   flogging themselves：expressing what a tough time they had reading the following works
90.   Andromaque：a tragedy by Racine
91.   making the……their debtor：They feel as if they were fulfilling a moral obligation, thus discharging a debt to the Almighty.
92.   equipment：not only reading skills but also intellectual preparedness or the capability to appreciate the unique beauty and profundities of these Great Books
93.   our friend：the fourth reader who subscribes to the Cream Theory
94.   genuine and respectable adherents：honest members of the type．The adjective respectable is no longer ironic here.
95.   delusion：an imaginary thing
96.   As well：to put the theory into practice, one may as well
97.   saw off：cut off with a saw
98.   Jungfrau：literally “young lady,”the name of a mountain summit in the Bernese Alps of south-central Switzerland
99.   set the……your back-garden：like a massive “rockery”in a Chinese garden．What grotesque imagination with which to reify the Cream Theory！
100.   It is……are inhuman：The booklists are awe-inspiring, distancing, off-putting—anything but human．At the sight of the books, you are afraid that you will not finish reading so many books within such a short lifetime unless you are superhuman.
101.   The list……everybody’s list：There cannot be a one-size-for-all booklist considering the different predilections and tastes of each and every reader.
102.   size：great size
103.   In the……of waste：like in the case of the non-reader
104.   in the……to outshine：an echo of “to score off others and not to be scored off”in the previous text
105.   a wholesale destruction：a book holocaust, so to speak
106.   Quite：no less or fewer than
107.   they are……as gravitation：Bad books are automatically reduced to pulp, automatically as in a free fall.
108.   perchance：by chance, perhaps
109.   rites：extremely funny to think of burning books in public with elaborate rituals such as playing of dirge music with someone making a mourning address．Some say the statement is an unfortunate prophecy of the Crystal Night (Nov.9-10, 1938) in Nazi Germany, when, among other things, fires were lit, and Jewish prayer books, scrolls, artwork, and philosophy texts were thrown into the flames.
110.   All copies……Realm Act：Law is appealed to to make the whole business appear all the more formal and real.
111.   A fixed……the police：as compensation
112.   that is……were extirpated：The author compares books to wolves or annoying pests such as flies and rats, which are to be eliminated, an echo of the earlier “sanitary campaign”(Cf.4n28).
113.   bibliography：the book industry
114.   ghouls who (……the battle-field)：blood-sucking profiteers like vultures preying on the war dead
115.   twopenny box：a very small, cheap booth selling magazines, newspapers, and so on
116.   of livelihood or of excitement：They do not have to worry about their bread and butter and can continue to enjoy the delight of hunting in a new social order of booklessness.
117.   Of whatever……smart thief：It means the more ingeniously you guard a thing, the smarter a thief you become of it．钱锺书translated this sentence into 彼欲慎卫之，彼亦巧窃之.
118.   but for……not preservation：Only the why changes, while the exciting how remains the same.
119.   quarry：a game bird or animal
120.   First Folio：the first effort ever to produce a complete Shakespeare in 1623, seven years after the playwright’s death, edited by two of his theatrical friends．A folio is a book consisting of large sheets of paper that are folded in half to make two leaves or four pages．(Compare a quarto.) About 1,000 copies of it were printed, of which 200 or so—mostly dismembered or in bad shape —have survived to this day as very expensive collectables.
121.   apple-loft：an attic, supposedly an unnoticeable place
122.   a popular……pink pictures：an edition for children indicating poor taste
123.   Rialto：an island of Venice where a market of hustle and bustle was and is situated
124.   The new……surprisingly little：He did not care at all if the books he had dug up were to be destroyed ultimately.
125.   How I Stamped Out Fielding：an example of the excitement of a hunter of Fielding’s works with a view to annihilating them
126.   Golden Age：an age of booklessness ironically
127.   as well……good book：from John Milton’s Aereopagitica：“As good almost kill a man as kill a good book：who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God’s image; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were, in the eye.”
128.   shot him through the head：another hypothetical sensational incident, a forerunner of present-day terrorism
129.   detectives at……of Wordsworth-printers：yet another imagined sensational incident resulting from banning Wordsworth
130.   I should……ten years：overall moratorium：an unlikelihood everybody, the author himself included, is aware of
131.   five years：five years out of the ten．Mathematical precision helps enhance the credibility of the incredible.
132.   the Great War：WWI standing for the theme on violence
133.   salad：creamy or flesh-colored material looking good enough to eat
134.   girls dressed……beside lagoons：waterside nymphs standing for the theme on sex
135.   Black Boris：another name for the devil; the theme on devilry
136.   any type of “lure”：a list of all bad things that can conveniently come under this rubric like “其他”in Chinese
137.   were：Note the subjunctive.
138.   As for……a page：As long as the price is bargained down, the book sellers will not have much money to make．As a result, publications may increasingly phase out.
139.   Cambridge University Press：standing for all prestigious university presses
140.   There remains：introducing, as it were, a perfectly logical sentence that, however, expresses sheer illogicality
141.   Ten thousand per annum：being mathematical again to reinforce the false impression of being scientific
142.   the sky did not fall：a phrase corresponding to 天不会塌下来．Find other examples showing different cultures at times converge, although they basically diverge.
143.   ten of……be women：as if he were making a serious proposal
144.   New Year Honours list：a list of recently conferred peerage
145.   age：age group/bracket
146.   that：in order that
147.   small list：This indicates that the number of the truly popular books is indeed small—a sane, truthful observation embedded amidst absurdities.
148.   Nothing, however……than tyranny：Tyranny is by no means my intention.
149.   All I……heart desires：I only verbalize or speak aloud what the public secretly wishes.
150.  shown：proved
151.   heretofore：up to that point of time
152.   The list……August 1st：On Jan.1 every year, a list of outlawed books is made．However, they will be left at large and given seven months as a grace period during which these books can prove their innocuity or usefulness.
153.   During July……books prescribed：July will be the last month of the grace period as well as a Month of Reckoning in which statistical research is to be carried out on how popular or unpopular the books in question are so that the final decision on whether to destroy them or not is eventually made.
154.   a brief oral examination：to check if the person’s claim is true or false
155.   The works……three categories：a total Utopia to follow, which would sound very realistic though
156.   Any which……fifteen years：In that case, many of the newly published Chinese books in the mainland would have been compulsorily destroyed as each of them runs hardly more than a couple of thousand copies and sell fewer.