Compared to Orientalism , in Culture and Imperialism, Edward Said narrowed his focus to the examination of fiction - novels of the western canon by Austen, Kipling, Conrad, Swift, Camus and Verdi's Opera Aida.

He gave readers an illuminating insight into suggesting that these novels served to subtly "condition" the consciousness of European readers at home into having one eye closed on the destructiveness of imperialism on the lives and cultures of non-Europeans, if not outright acceptance of imperialism's civilizing mission, such that the liberal John Stuart Mill which Said ,quoted, could say: