Even the characters who seem to be in the purest search for Vereker's great secret, Corvick and Gwendolen, will not share it with their friends. When they find out, they all want to publish it for themselves. Vereker himself appears to despise the literary critics featured in the book, citing their lack of vision. Vereker speaks to the narrator at several points in the novel: "You miss him, my dear friend, with inimitable confidence; the fact that you are terribly clever and your article is terribly nice does not make the slightest difference.."