I have a shelf full of books that I call my ‘worthy shelf.’ They range from Charles Dickens to H.G Wells, Jane Austen to J.D. Salinger, some, admittedly, remaining unopened, purchased in a haze of self- importance and good intentions. There is one thing they all have in common. They are the books lauded in must-read lists, the ones met with cries of, “Oh, you simply must read it!” They are pored over by frazzled university students and met with distaste by bored school children. They are the classics.
Elizabeth Bennet. Sherlock Holmes. Heathcliff. I’ve heard of them, you’ve heard of them. The man down the road who hasn’t opened a book since he left school forty years ago has heard of them. Be it in a film adaptation or a warbling Kate Bush song, these names have been bandied around popular culture so much, that they are more familiar to us than our own Prime Minister (David who?) But what is it about them that causes generation after generation to fall in love with them? What magic do they possess that has so immortalised them in education and culture?
The term ‘classic’ is vague, though it is generally agreed that a classic is from an era not of our own. It is interesting to consider that the books that are being produced today will be treasured by many, hundreds of years later. Time moves swiftly on. Our new will one day be someone’s old, our ever-so-modern way of thinking and living will be considered a curious relic, our customs quaint. Of course, amongst the thousands of books being published every year, a mere handful will survive the test of time. An instant bestseller today might be forgotten in ten years and a critically reviled author might be the newest J.R.R Tolkien. Some of the most famous books today were barely noticed in their time.
One thing that is most striking about the classics is how relevant they feel to our lives today. There are themes in them that are as applicable today as they were when they were written all those years ago. While we may never experience being shipped off to an awful school by our unloving relatives, we do understand feeling trapped and powerless by a situation we cannot control. We may not have been assaulted by a pimp, but I think we all remember how alienating and confusing our teen years were. There is something about these books that are truly timeless, they could be set in the Roaring Twenties or a modern day London council estate and they still wouldn’t lose their meaning. Indeed, it is getting increasingly popular to take a classic novel and place it in today’s society – The Lizzie Bennet Diaries for example, in which the story of Pride and Prejudice is transported to 21st century California and narrated by our heroine in a series of short video blogs. This has been watched over a million times on Youtube, proving the enduring popularity of a story that is two hundred years old.
Woman meets man. Woman dislikes man. Man falls in love with woman. Woman eventually falls in love with man. It doesn’t sound like a rollicking read yet it has set the template for almost every romance that has followed it. Sometimes it is the deceptively simple storylines that are the cleverest and most effective. Of course, a strong plot is nothing without memorable characters. In fact, a weak plot can be lifted by terrific characters while an excellent story can be let down by characters who are passive and bland. A happy marriage of the two is what will make a book stand out from the rabble and launch it into classic territory.
Talent never fades and every generation has a story to tell. We may not be able to predict what will be famous in a hundred years but we can make it our duty to discover the gems amongst the rubbish. Keep reading the classics but do not forget to look around at what is being published now. Who knows, you may find your own personal classic to pass on.
Which books would you recommend to future generations?