novels so often provide an anodyne and not an antidote

我不由自主地叹了一口气，叹气的原因是因为小说总常常是一服止痛药而不是解毒剂，催人陷入麻痹的睡眠中而不是用燃烧的烙铁把人惊醒。

So, with a sigh, because novels so often provide an anodyne and not an antidote, glide one into torpid slumbers instead of rousing one with a burning brand, I settled down with a notebook and a pencil to make what I could of Mary Carmichael’s first novel, Life’s Adventure.

--- A room of one's own (Virginia Woolf)