Why read classics? - Anupama

What really is a classic?

A classic is a noteworthy book of its time which has managed to transcend timelines to reach readers of today.

You must have heard the names Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen, Tolstoy or Hugo too much so that you think they are overrated and you are probably bored by their very names. Then why read classics?

1. Timeless tales.

No matter how many years and centuries have gone past. The only real reason why we keep reading classics is to be assured that human beings have always been the same from inside. The circumstances may have been different but the struggles have always been the same. Italo Calvino in his famous 1980s essay called a classic "a book that has never finished saying what it has to say"

If only you understood why you felt flashes of sympathy for Heathcliff even in the later parts of ‘The Wuthering Heights’? If only you see why you could not bear the miseries of David Copperfield. The way you can still relate to characters belonging to a different lifetime is a wonder the classics can present you with.

 

 

 

2. To live the lives of those who came before us.

What were their stories? Their lifestyle? Their culture and identity? The politics and social norms? Classics literature does the job of capturing the essence and presenting to us what might otherwise be faceless facts.

Whether it is Marcel Proust reminiscing on a piece of Madeleine or the fierce inner conflicts of the seemingly common characters of D H Lawrence, there is so much that will not come again in this era.

 

3. Language and Style

Classics are known for their writing style and rich language. If you are looking for expanding your vocabulary or you want to discover the many ways of writing, classics are the place.

They often come to represent a particular genre by being the standing of literary piece in the category. It may have introduced or shaped a genre or redefined what a particular writing style should be like. Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) is often argued to be the first sci-fi novels and Edgar Allen Poe is credited for introducing the world to detective novels.

4. Thought Provoking

You could skim through a lot of contemporary books and come out catching everything it had to say because that’s exactly what it is meant for, lighthearted entertainment. But a classic makes you brood over every sentence, sometimes it takes so long that your toe nails will fall off and grow back again before finishing it. But it exercises your thinking, widens the tiny room in your head and you will come out feeling victorious.

Sylvia Plath’s ‘Bell Jar’ takes us through an incredible journey wherein insanity gets hold of 19-year-old Ester and sends her into a downward spiral. The makes you question the views society has created around mental illness and the female oppression in a patriarchal world.

 

Don’t feel cheated into believing classics are hundreds of years old, there are gems in present day literature. But ultimately it is those after us that decide what they would consider classics from our time. Time is the real test that a book has to stand.

 

A list of must reads would likely run into hundreds, so let us save that for later. Here is a list of classics you can begin with and includes some modern classics as well.

1. Catcher of the Rye – J D Salinger
2. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
3. The Great Gatsby- F Scott Fitzgerald
4. The little women – Louisa May Alcott
5. Wuthering heights- Emily Bronte
6. Animal farm -George Orwell
7. Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
8. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
9. The little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupery
10.  The Picture of Dorian Grey- Oscar Wilde