In a utilitarian age, of all other times, it is a matter of grave importance that fairy tales should be respected.
Interpretation
Fairy tales hold significant value in a practical world, emphasizing the need to honor their importance.
In this quote, Charles Dickens argues that in a time focused on utilitarianism and practicality, it is crucial to acknowledge and respect the value of fairy tales. He highlights that these stories are essential not just for entertainment, but for nourishing the imagination, moral understanding, and cultural heritage, suggesting that they provide deeper truths that are often lost in a strictly pragmatic worldview.
In practice
A children's literature class discussing the impact of fairy tales on cultural education.
I recollected one story there was in the village, how that on a certain night in the year (it might be that very night for anything I knew), all the dead people came out of the ground and sat at the heads of their own graves till morning.
A silent look of affection and regard when all other eyes are turned coldly away-the consciousness that we possess the sympathy and affection of one being when all others have deserted us-is a hold, a stay, a comfort, in the deepest affliction, which no wealth could purchase, or power bestow.
Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before--more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle.
There are not a few among the disciples of charity who require, in their vocation, scarcely less excitement than the votaries of pleasure in theirs.
You might, from your appearance, be the wife of Lucifer,” said Miss Pross, in her breathing. “Nevertheless, you shall not get the better of me. I am an Englishwoman.
Christmas is a poor excuse every 25th of December to pick a man's pockets.
In my case, literature is a kind of revenge. It's something that gives me what real life can't give me - all the adventures, all the suffering. All the experiences I can only live in the imagination, literature completes.
There is a great discovery still to be made in literature, that of paying literary men by the quantity they do not write.
It is clear that the books owned the shop rather than the other way about. Everywhere they had run wild and taken possession of their habitat, breeding and multiplying, and clearly lacking any strong hand to keep them down.
It’s a small story really, about, among other things: * A girl * Some words * An accordionist * Some fanatical Germans * A Jewish fist fighter * And quite a lot of thievery
An unread author is an author who is a victim of the worst kind of censorship, indifference - a censorship more effective than the Ecclesiastical Index.
You hear all this whining going on, "Where are our great writers?" The thing I might feel doleful about is: Where are the readers?
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