I mean like why isn't it just like an awesomely good book? Why are many novels (such as Shakespeare etc) actually called a classic?
What makes a book a classic?
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Shakespeare wrote plays, and many people do think they're awesomely good (okay, maybe not exact words, but the same sentiment)
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I think they tend to resonate with some aspect of the human experience in a way that transcends the time and place in which it was written. It's relate-to-able even if you're from a different time, or place, or society.
... many different reasons I suppose. Sometimes because of its sheer popularity. Other times because of what Kaitie, said. Critics and experts play a role, too, in giving awards which can elevate a book to a classic sometimes.
I think appeal across generations counts too. There are plenty of books written, say 100 years ago, that were beloved in their time but for various reasons don't continue to resonate with readers. Classics tend to be books that have loyal readers and continued relevance years after they are published.
Continuous public interest in it over a long period of time, several decades at minimum, keeping it in print. My standard is 40 years, which means essentially two generations of readers. Thereby now including such recent "classics" as:
To Kill a Mockingbird
A Clockwork Orange
Catch-22
Slaughterhouse-Five
Fahrenheit-451
The Adventures of Augie March
Childhood's End
caw
The movies of Mockingbird, Orange and Slaughterhouse-Five are magnificent, in no small part because each is a faithful reflection of the novel on which it is based. Catch-22 isn't as good as the book, nor is either crack at 451. To my knowledge, neither Childhood's End, nor Augie March have been filmed. If they have, the movies have been forgettable. Every one of these novels had achieved a significant public and critical reputation before any movie based on them got made.
I think you're going to have to look long and hard for a novel that a movie adaptation made into a "classic". Might have happened, but off the top of my headfeathers, I can't think of one.
caw
They stand the test of time. They're not just popular in the day and age in which they're written, but they still appeal to readers decades or even centuries later. They speak to what it is to be human. They're universal.
... a book's appealing to subsequent generations is definitely important, as several here have pointed out. Sometimes though a book goes under-appreciated in it's own time and only becomes a classic years later, in another generation. Moby Dick is one such. Published in around 1850 it didn't gain literary recognition till the 1920's. (Just read about this in a bio on Hawthorne who was an acquaintance of Melville's.)
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Continued relevance and of course some luck. Great writing helps but won't carry the day on its own.
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If you look at Robert Louis Stevenson, James Hogg and John Buchan they where ignored by critics until recently.
However, they have remained much loved writers by readers. The critics catch up eventually.
However, they have remained much loved writers by readers. The critics catch up eventually.
A classic is a book that is still as relevant now as it was when it was first written.
And by relevant I mean in terms of how it caputres the essence of th humance being, the conflict, the emotions, the situations, the themes.
Those are the things that people remember.
And by relevant I mean in terms of how it caputres the essence of th humance being, the conflict, the emotions, the situations, the themes.
Those are the things that people remember.
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Classics give not only a strong impression of what it was like at the time of writing, but have universal timeless themes. They are immortal.
'So long as men can breathe or eyes can see/ So long lives this, and this gives life to thee'
'So long as men can breathe or eyes can see/ So long lives this, and this gives life to thee'
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To me, a classic is a book that I can read every other month for seven years and never get bored of. *cough cough* Pride and Prejudice.
And isn't it important to keep dated material out of a book that becomes a classic? Which helps give it that universal appeal.
Tri
Tri
They are also fresh looks with superior writing. Writers who make breakthroughs with form influence whole generations of other writers. People who examine previously forbidden themes and content in a serious way are influential, too. Part of what makes books classic is not only the impact they have on the ordinary reader but also how they influence writers.
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Yes, because nothing speaks to the modern condition like the 19th century whaling specifics of Moby Dick, or the 18th century sewers of Paris in Les Miserables...
Classic status isn't based on popular appeal. It is decided by the academic/literary elite who are the gatekeepers to the canon of "significant texts". They decide what will be analysed and studied. And, to be fair, they aren't such bad judges, although they do tend to look down on writers who are a bit too popular. And there is sometimes an element of "The Emperor's New Clothes" about some of their selections (Prolux, Cormac, ahem, ahem).
P.S. Horserider92, are you on a wind up? I wouldn't normally ask on a board such as this, but you use like and awesomely indiscriminately, and you seem to think Shakespeare wrote novels. Just wondering. Apologies if I've misjudged.
I think that all books are about the human condition, the absolute basics since we emerged from the caves to hunt for food and to procreate. Over the centuries, gifted writers came along and were able to record the human condition in a manner that appealed to the reader, an appeal that is universal and will never die.
The older classics are written in a language that may be difficult to understand by the modern reader, but the author’s analysis of the human condition of his time shines through, and if it still has a relevance 50 or 500 years later, then it’s what we call a classic.
I also think that classics are books which are translatable into any language and still never lose their appeal to the foreign reader. ‘Grumpy’ Tolstoy is notoriously difficult to translate, but even poor translations still appeal to readers because his observations of the human condition are evergreens.
The older classics are written in a language that may be difficult to understand by the modern reader, but the author’s analysis of the human condition of his time shines through, and if it still has a relevance 50 or 500 years later, then it’s what we call a classic.
I also think that classics are books which are translatable into any language and still never lose their appeal to the foreign reader. ‘Grumpy’ Tolstoy is notoriously difficult to translate, but even poor translations still appeal to readers because his observations of the human condition are evergreens.
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