Sri Aurobindo

Letters on Poetry and Art

SABCL - Volume 27

Part 2. On His Own and Others’ Poetry
Section 2. On Poets and Poetry
Philosophers, Intellectuals, Novelists and Musicians

Dickens and Balzac [1]

For literary creation and effective expression, who will deny that style has a great force?

Of course; without style there is no literature — except in fiction, where a man with bad style like Dickens or Balzac can make up by vigour and the power of his substance.

29 October 1933