ÒNearly all critics are prone to
imagine that they know a
great many facts relevant to a book which
in reality that donÕt know. The
author inevitably
perceives their ignorance because he (often he alone) knows the real factsÉ Surely he is as well placed for guessing about me as any scholar is for guessing about the
dead. Yet he seldom guesses right. Hence I cannot resist the conviction that similar guesses
about the dead seem
plausible only because the dead are not there to refute themÉÓ On Stories, 132-33