What does a "good-bad" novel mean?
It is true that there are still a few contemporary or roughly contemporary novelists whom the intelligentsia considers it permissible to read; but the point is that the ordinary good-bad novel is habitually ignored while the ordinary good-bad books of verse or criticism is still taken seriously.
I don`t understand what does the author mean by this sentence.

Question

What does a "good-bad" novel mean?
It is true that there are still a few contemporary or roughly contemporary novelists whom the intelligentsia considers it permissible to read; but the point is that the ordinary good-bad novel is habitually ignored while the ordinary good-bad books of verse or criticism is still taken seriously. 
I don`t understand  what does the author mean by this sentence.

Answer

I have never heard of ”good bad books (or novels)”, but Orwell defines ”good bad books” here:

http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/books/english/e_books

He writes:
”A type of book which we hardly seem to produce in these days, but which flowered with great richness in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, is what Chesterton called the “good bad book”: that is, the kind of book that has no literary pretensions but which remains readable when more serious productions have perished.”

In other words, it's a book that is not considered ”great/proper literature”, but nevertheless outlives more ”serious” books because it's enjoyable to read.

Answer

Really? It`s an essay written by George Orwell

Answer

Me neither (I don't knew what that means) and I'm a native English speaker. Lol!

Answers · 5

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