Miles Heubeck and Virginia

We have a right to expect two things from a novel: life insofar as it is a creation and more life because it is the creation which has the special task of setting forth where 'no man or woman has dared to go'. It's an enterprise into the unknown so that more may be known. Stories are examples of craftsmanship; by them we want to be entertained and moved. Novels involve a certain amount of craft but their purpose is to set us back onto the path of human growth and to confirm us there.