Life — February 27, 1908 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Omniscient Novelist" by Agnes Repplier This page satirizes English literary critics who attack Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for becoming a critic himself. The article argues that critics unfairly judge novelists—especially Doyle—for writing detective and war stories, claiming such work disqualifies them from literary judgment. The accompanying illustration depicts a nursery governess overwhelmed by books, labeled "As a Nursery Governess," likely mocking how critics position themselves as authorities on all subjects. The satire's point: English critics are hypocritically arrogant, dismissing working novelists' right to critique literature while the critics themselves lack comparable creative achievements. The piece defends Doyle's intellectual credibility against snobbish literary gatekeeping.