“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not
pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.”
A classic book is a book accepted as being
exemplary or noteworthy, either through an imprimatur such as being listed in
any of the Western canons or through a reader's own personal opinion. The term
itself is closely related to Western Canon and to various college/university
Senior Comprehensive Examination Reading Lists. What makes a book
"classic" is a concern that has occurred to various authors ranging
from Italo Calvino to Mark Twain and the related questions of "Why Read
the Classics?" and "What Is a Classic?" have been essayed by
authors from different genres and eras (Calvino, T. S. Eliot, Charles Augustin
Sainte-Beuve). The ability of a classic book to be reinterpreted, to seemingly
be renewed in the interests of generations of readers succeeding its creation,
is a theme that is seen in the writings of literary critics including Michael
Dirda, Saint-Beuve and Ezra Pound.
“Classic' - a book which people praise and don't
read.”
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