Skip to content
Shawords

Quote#Art

Dickens stands first as a defiant monument of what happens when a…

Quote byG. K. Chesterton · 1874–1936

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Charles Dickens (1906), Ch 5: "The Great Popularity".

English (original)

Dickens stands first as a defiant monument of what happens when a great literary genius has a literary taste akin to that of the community. For this kinship was deep and spiritual. Dickens was not like our ordinary demagogues and journalists. Dickens did not write what the people wanted. Dickens wanted what the people wanted.

— G. K. Chesterton

More from G. K. Chesterton