"The land of literature is a fairy land to those who view it at a distance, but, like all other landscapes, the charm fades on a nearer approach, and the thorns and briars become visible"
About this Quote
The intent isn’t to scold readers for loving books; it’s to puncture the spectator fantasy that art is all glow and no grit. Irving writes in an era when authorship was becoming a recognizable profession in the Anglo-American world, with magazines, publishers, and an increasingly commercial reading public. That shift produced a new kind of longing: the idea of the writer’s life as a charming alternative to the market-driven grind of other jobs. Irving, who navigated transatlantic fame and the precarious economics of letters, knows the backstage reality: deadlines, tastes, gatekeepers, and the constant pressure to make the magic repeat.
Subtextually, the quote is also an argument about distance itself. Admiration thrives on abstraction. Proximity brings detail, and detail brings cost. The line flatters the dream of literature while rescuing writers from the expectation that they should be dreamlike too. It’s a sober reminder that beauty has a manufacturing process, and the factory floor has sharp edges.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Irving, Washington. (2026, January 18). The land of literature is a fairy land to those who view it at a distance, but, like all other landscapes, the charm fades on a nearer approach, and the thorns and briars become visible. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-land-of-literature-is-a-fairy-land-to-those-10754/
Chicago Style
Irving, Washington. "The land of literature is a fairy land to those who view it at a distance, but, like all other landscapes, the charm fades on a nearer approach, and the thorns and briars become visible." FixQuotes. January 18, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-land-of-literature-is-a-fairy-land-to-those-10754/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The land of literature is a fairy land to those who view it at a distance, but, like all other landscapes, the charm fades on a nearer approach, and the thorns and briars become visible." FixQuotes, 18 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-land-of-literature-is-a-fairy-land-to-those-10754/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
