Literature is both a picture and interpretation of life. It criticises human life. It reflects and mirrors society. Matthew Arnold defines, "Literature is the expression of the best that is known and thought in the world."
Study of literature has always two aspects. They are simple enjoyment and appreciation and analysis and exact description. Presentation of literature is artistic and suggestive. Its impression and appeal are permanent.
As an absolute literature, The Arabian Nights is enjoyed by all. It takes the readers to the world of high imagination. In this colourful world, only absolute pleasure and mystery wait for them. Every episode is thrilling and full of suspense. Gulliver's Travels takes a reader to a highly imaginative world of the Lilliputians, Brobdingnag, Laputa and Houyhnhnms. The Faerie Queene gives him another world of romance and adventure. But the significance of the books on various angles gives him wonderful shock and surprise.
Pleasures of reading literature are not one and single but countless. On every page of a book of literature strikes the reader with delight, charm and laughter. He may wander a funny land. He may realise how human nature changes and alters. He may feel how human beings feel and express hatred, love and jealousy.
Literature makes a man spell-bound like a magician. It makes the reader cheerful, thoughtful and philosophical. Sometimes, it makes him laugh. Sometimes, it makes him tearful. Patriotic zeal may be aroused in him by reading the books on literature.
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