Crítica literaria anglosajona

En su reseña de la traducción de Eugenio Onegin de Vladimir Nabokov, Edmund Wilson intenta dar lecciones de ruso y de traducción a Nabokov. La respuesta de éste es devastadora, e incluye una precisa descripción de la crítica literaria anglosajona, más preocupada por si el autor es "compasivo" o deja de serlo, en vez de discutir los méritos del libro.

My most serious failure, according to Mr.Wilson.,“is one of interpretation." Had he read my commentary with more attention he would have seen that I do not believe in any kind of “interpretation" so that his or my "interpretation" can be neither a failure nor success. In other words, I do not believe in the old-fashioned, naive, and musty method of human-interest criticism championed by Mr. Wilson that consists of removing the characters from an author's imaginary world to the imaginary, but generally far less plausible, world of the critic who then proceeds to examine these displaced characters as if they were "real people."