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Full Idea
A work that looks for the audience's sympathetic approval and alienates them instead, because it's both morally repulsive and incoherent in what it requires them to suppose, isn't an artistic success.
Gist of Idea
A work which seeks approval for immorality, but alienates the audience, is a failure
Source
Stephen Davies (The Philosophy of Art (2nd ed) [2016], 8.7)
Book Ref
Davies,Stephen: 'The Philosophy of Art (2nd ed)' [Wiley Blackwell 2016], p.218
A Reaction
The implication seems to be that works are only successful if they achieve what the creator consciously intended. Lawrence said trust the novel, not the novelist. Milton's Satan is a famous example of heroism not intended by the author.