I recommend caution in attributing motives to others, especially motives
that they would deny.  For example, as I recall, Richard Stern gave a
negative review to Pnin.  If I say he did it because he was envious, and
he says he did it out of a desire to protect Literature from minor and
flawed work, there's really no way of knowing who's right.  And even if
a critic is in fact envious, that motive matters far less than the
substance of the criticism.

Jay Livingston