“Do we really want consistency in an artist? What does this pressure to please the market have to do with art? Originality involves risk, and risk implies the possibility of failure. That’s how greatness is born. Melville was acclaimed for Typee and Omoo. Then he immersed himself in Moby-Dick and eventually died penniless and obscure.”
Robert McCrum weighs the successful lifelong literary career against being remembered for one brilliant book.
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