“Let him not so much learn what happened as judge what happened” (On Educating Children 175)
“for poetry speaks more of universals, history of particulars … By ‘universals’ I mean the kinds of thing a certain type of person will probably or necessarily say or do in a given situation; and this is the aim of poetry, although it gives individual names to its characters.” (Poetics - Aristotle, Classical Literary Criticism 69)
Great works: but perhaps they do not exist. Or perhaps some just can’t relate as broadly to certain situations as others. It is a matter of empathy and imagination.