Abstract
The chapter in a monograph published at the occasion of 100th anniversary of Antonio Candido dialogues with his essay "The Right to Literature". In this essay, Candido argues that it is legitimate to consider right to the literature one of the human rights because it deepens our humanity.
From the historical perspective of Central Europe it questions the opinion that generous social politics lead to the improvement of reading habits. Based on the Letters on Aesthetic Education of Friedrich Schiller that show beauty as a way to freedom, it finds the critic's living heritage in his anchorage of writing, reading and interpreting literature in human experience.
Understood in this way, literature is not only one of the human rights but it is also the basis of really human ethics.