{"product_id":"2940000768617","title":"Plum Pudding","description":"On Christmas Eve, while the Perfect Reader sits in his armchair immersed in a book -- so absorbed that he has let the fire go out -- I propose to slip gently down the chimney and leave this tribute in his stocking. It is not a personal tribute. I speak, on behalf of the whole fraternity of writers, this word of gratitude -- and envy.\u003cp\u003e But the Perfect Reader, for whom all fine things are written, knows no such delicate anguish. When he reads, it is without any \u003ci\u003earrière pensée,\u003c\/i\u003e any twingeing consciousness of self. I like to think of one Perfect Reader of my acquaintance. And now he is reading. I can see him reading. I know just how his mind feels! Oh, the Perfect Reader!\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e The enjoyment of literature is a personal communion; it cannot be outwardly instilled. The utmost the critic can do is read the marriage service over the reader and the book. The union is consummated, if at all, in secret. . . .\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"B\u0026R Samizdat Express","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47144172388592,"sku":"2940000768617","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940000768617_p0.jpg?v=1763545739","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940000768617","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}