GRE Reading Comprehension

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Source: XDF

In Hardy's novels, various impulses were sacrificed to each other inevitably and often. Inevitably, because Hardy did not care in the way that novelists such as Flaubert or James cared, and therefore took paths of least resistance. Thus, one impulse often surrendered to a fresher one and, unfortunately, instead of exacting a compromise, simply disappeared. A desire to throw over reality a light that never was might give way abruptly to the desire on the part of what we might consider a novelist-scientist to record exactly and concretely the structure and texture of a flower. In this instance, the new impulse was at least an energetic one, and thus its indulgence did not result in a relaxed style. But on other occasions Hardy abandoned a perilous, risky, and highly energizing impulse in favor of what was for him the fatally relaxing impulse to classify and schematize abstractly. When a relaxing impulse was indulged, the style一that sure index of an author's literary worth一was certain to become verbose.

Question List: 1 2 3

The passage supplies information to suggest that its author would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements about the novelists Flaubert and James?

  • A They indulged more impulses in their novels than did Hardy in his novels.
  • B They have elicited a greater degree of favorable response from most literary critics than has Hardy.
  • C In the writing of their novels, they often took pains to effect a compromise among their various novelistic impulses.
  • D Regarding novelistic construction, they cared more about the opinions of other novelists than about the opinions of ordinary readers.
  • E They wrote novels in which the impulse toward realism and the impulse away from realism were evident in equal measure.

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