For every great author, there's another great author eager to knock him or her down a few pegs. Although the writers here are typically deemed canonical by literary tastemakers, there wasn't much mutual admiration amongst them.

每個偉大的作家，都會受到另一個偉大作家的毒舌抨擊。盡管圖中的作家是公認的大文學家，然而他們之間似乎彼此并不欣賞。

Mark Twain on Jane Austen

馬克·吐溫評簡·奧斯汀

“I often want to criticise Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can't conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Everytime I read 'Pride and Prejudice' I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone.”

“我經常想批評簡·奧斯汀，但是她的書太讓我抓狂，讓我很難對讀者隱瞞我的憤怒之情；所以每次我開始讀她的書時都不得不中途停止。每當我讀《傲慢與偏見》的時候，都恨不得把她從墳墓里挖出來、抓起她的膝骨敲打她的頭顱。”

馬克·吐溫作品：《哈克貝利·費恩歷險記》《湯姆·索亞歷險記》

簡·奧斯汀作品：《傲慢與偏見》《理智與情感》《諾桑覺寺》《曼斯菲爾德莊園》《愛瑪》《勸導》

Charlotte Bront? on Jane Austen

夏洛蒂·勃朗特評簡·奧斯汀

“Why do you like Miss Austen so very much? … I had not seen Pride and Prejudice till I read that sentence of yours, and then I got the book. And what did I find? An accurate daguerreotyped portrait of a commonplace face; a carefully fenced, highly cultivated garden, with neat borders and delicate flowers; but no glance of a bright, vivid physiognomy, no open country, no fresh air, no blue hill, no bonny beck.”——Letter to a friend

“你為什么那么喜歡簡·奧斯汀呢？我始終都沒看《傲慢與偏見》，直到看到你的那些話我才拿起這本書。我發現了什么呢？不過是對普通人照本宣科的描述罷了；只有圍墻精美、植物蔥郁、邊界整飭、鮮花爛漫的花園，卻沒有明亮生動的畫面、空曠的原野、新鮮的空氣、蒼翠的青山、秀麗的小河?！薄澾x自夏洛蒂·勃朗特寫給朋友的信

夏洛蒂·勃朗特作品：《簡·愛》《雪莉》《維萊特》《教師》