Essays: What is a Good Book? NCERT Solutions | Class 11 English Woven Words - Humanities/Arts PDF Download

Understanding the Text

Q1: What, according to Ruskin, are the limitations of the good book of the hour?
Ans: According to Ruskin, the limitations of the good book of the hour are that these are not true books but merely letters or newspapers in good print. The good books of the hour are simply some useful or pleasant talk of some person whom one cannot otherwise converse with. These good books are written merely for the purpose of communication to a wider audience. According to the essayist, these good books are rather books of talk which are printed only because their authors cannot speak to thousands of people at once. These are mere conveyance of voice through printed words.

Q2: What are the criteria that Ruskin feels that readers should fulfil to make themselves fit for the company of the Dead?
Ans: The criteria that Ruskin feels that readers should fulfil to make themselves fit for the company of the Dead are that one must be laborious and meritorious. Ruskin feels that no wealth will bribe, no name will overawe, no artifice will deceive the Dead. Ruskin says that in order to be with their company one has to rise to the level of their thoughts.

Q3: Why does Ruskin feel that reading the work of a good author is a painstaking task?
Ans: Ruskin feels that reading the work of a good author is a painstaking task as it is not very easy to get into the meaning of the words that the author has written. He says that one has to be prepared to work like an Australian Miner to understand a good book which is born of wisdom. Just as mining is a very painstaking task, so is reading a good book, according to the author. In other words, the essayist means that one has to go through between the lines to understand the pithy words in the good books. Like an Australian miner, one needs patience and hard work to understand the works of the good authors.

Q4: What is the emphasis placed by Ruskin on accuracy?
Ans: Ruskin emphasised on accuracy by pointing out that the entire difference between education and non education consists in accuracy. Ruskin says a well educated gentleman may not know many languages – may not be able to speak any but his own – may have read very few books. But whatever language he knows, he knows precisely, whatever word he pronounces, he pronounces rightly etc, Ruskin points out that one may chose to read all the books in the British museum and may remain an utterly illiterate, uneducated person but that if one read ten pages of a good book, letter by letter, i.e., with real accuracy that truly is rewarding.

Talking about the Text

Q1: Ruskin's insistence on looking intensely at words, and assuring oneself of meaning, syllable by syllable – nay, letter by letter.
Ans: Ruskin advises that one should look intensely at words and assure oneself of meaning, syllable by syllable – nay, letter by letter. He means to say that one should go between the lines to get into the core of the text of any good book. This may be time taking and painstaking but very rewarding. This gives accuracy which is the mark of an educated person. A well educated person may read few books but if he or she reads them word by word, syllable by syllable only then can he/she reap the fruit, gather wisdom and transform life.

Q2: Choice of diction is very crucial to the communication of meaning.
Ans: Communication through words may be easy but for effective communication emphasis has to be given on the choice of diction. In fact, the impact of any communication depends on the choice of diction. A set of words may convey almost the same meaning but out of these words only a particular word will convey the meaning effectively.

Appreciation

Q1: The text is an excerpt from Sesame and Lilies which consists of two essays, primarily, written for delivery as public lectures in 1864. Identify the features that fit the speech mode. Notice the sentence patterns.
Ans: The text was given as a lecture hence it shares the features of a speech. His use of the first person or ‘I’ is the most direct feature. Repetition of certain expressions like “if you could, you would; you would write instead” is characteristic of an interaction and spontaneous explanation. He regularly asks questions like “Perhaps you think no book was ever so written?” which engages another person in a speech. The sentence patterns are more conversational and fluid. The number of times he uses ‘and’, ‘but’ or ‘so’ shows a spontaneity of thought and explanation rather than the corrected lines of a written text.

Q2: The lecture was delivered in 1864. What are the shifts in style and diction that make the language different from the way it is used today?
Ans: The shifts in style and diction are very evident in the text. Certain words like ‘assuredly’ is less used and words like ‘most distant’ are now incorrect because it has become ‘most distant’. Certain phrases like ‘peerage of words’ or national noblesse of words’ is no more used because aristocracy or nobility hardly exist anymore. Certain formations of sentences are also different like ‘no one has yet said it’ as opposed to how it is said today- ‘no one has said it yet’.

Language Work

Q1: Many sentences and paragraphs in the excerpt begin with the word ‘And’. To what extent does this contribute to the rhetorical style of the lecture?
Ans: John Ruskin gave ‘What is a Good Book’ as a public lecture in the nineteenth century. His style of speaking is more fluid and conversational as compared to an essay. His repetitive use of ‘And’ or ‘but’ helps in explaining an idea even further. It is more spontaneous like an interaction rather than written and rewritten like an essay.

Q2: Study each of the following sentences and notice the balance between its parts. Pick out other sentences in the text that reflect this kind of balance.
(i) It is right that a false Latin quantity should excite a smile in the House of Commons; but it is wrong that a false English meaning should not excite a frown there.
(ii) Let the accent of words be watched, by all means, but let the meaning be watched more closely still, and fewer will do the work.
Ans: A book is essentially not a talked thing but a written thing; and written, not with the view of more communication, but of permanence.
They do not give it to you by way of help, but of reward, and will make themselves sure that you deserve it before they allow you to reach it.
You may dig long and find none; you must dig painfully to find any.
You might read all the books in the British Museum (if you could live long enough), and remain an utterly ‘illiterate’, uneducated person; but that if you read ten pages of a good book, letter by letter—that is to say, with real accuracy—you are forever more in some measure with an educated person.