Critical Reasoning

Literary critic: Often the heirs of a successful writer
decide to publish the manuscripts and the letters
the dead writer left behind, regardless of the
merit of the work. However, many writers have
manuscripts that they judge to be unworthy of
publication and with which they would not like
to be publicly associated even after they die.
Hence a successful writer who decides not to
publish a recently completed manuscript should
destroy it immediately.
Which one of the following statements, if true, most
calls into question the soundness of the literary critic's
advice?
(A) Some writers whose work becomes both popular
and respected after they die received no literary
recognition during their lifetimes.
(B) Writers who achieve a certain degree of fame
can expect that some of their personal
correspondence will become publicly available
after they die.
(C) Most successful writers' judgments of their
recently completed work is unnecessarily harsh
and is often later revised.
(D) Many posthumously published books would
have been published by the author had the
author lived.
(E) Some heirs of successful writers do not consider
themselves qualified to judge the merits of a
literary work.

IMO C

Please explain Phirozz!.......what is the problem with D?

Regards,
Phil

ssgmatter wrote:Please explain Phirozz!.......what is the problem with D?

Regards,
Phil

Look at the last sentence "a successful writer who decides not to publish a recently completed manuscript should destroy it immediately''

Option D is contradicting the above sentence. Can we say that it would have been published if the writer were alive even after knowing that the writer dont want to publish ?

Whereas option C is saying most writers' judjement is unnecessarily harsh and is ofter later revised. It means writer may destroy the worthful manuscript due to harsh judgement.

Thanks Phirozz!

It makes sense

Cheers!

Regards,
Phil

I'd say C but I'm afraid more because of my intuition than any logic.