While blogging on the website .uk in 2009, Chris Cox echoes Twain’s ‘classic’ sentiments of 1900 and Bennett’s witticism about classic books when he opined on the Guardian.Co “Books Blog” that there are actually two kinds of “classic novels”: The first are those we know we should have read, but probably have not. Her thought process is a direct change compared to earlier thinking. Calvino agrees with the Ohio educator when he states “Schools and universities ought to help us understand that no book that talks about a book says more than the book in question, but instead they do their level best to make us think the opposite.” Clark and Calvino come to a similar conclusion that when a literary work is analyzed for what makes it ‘classic’, that in just the act of analysis or as Clark says “the anatomical dissection”, the reader can end up destroying the unique pleasure that mere enjoyment a work of literature can hold. Clark says that “teachers of English have been so long trained in the ‘classics’ that these ‘classics’ have become to them very much like the Bible, for the safety of which the rise of modern science causes such unnecessary fears.” She goes on to say that among the sources she consulted was a group of eighth-graders when she asked them the question: “What do you understand by the classics in literature?” Two of the answers Clark received were “Classics are books your fathers give you and you keep them to give to your children” and “Classics are those great pieces of literature considered worthy to be studied in English classes of high school or college”. Over the course of her essay Clark considers the question of what makes a piece of literature a classic and why the idea of “the classics” is important to society as a whole. 3, “The Official Organ of the National Council of Teachers of English” Clark, a teacher at the Rozelle School in East Cleveland, Ohio, predates Calvino’s similar conclusions by 60 years when she also essayed the question of what makes a book a ‘classic’ in her article “Teaching Children to Choose” in The English Journal, Volume 9, No. What actually makes a work of literature a ‘classic book’ is not just a consideration of extensively published authors. You don’t need to be a CPA to read a classic book. ![]() ![]() In the 1980s Italo Calvino said in his essay “Why Read the Classics?” that “A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say” and comes to the crux of personal choice in this matter when he says (italics in the original translation): “Your classic author is the one you cannot feel indifferent to, who helps you define yourself in relation to him, even in dispute with him.” Consideration of what makes a literary work a classic is for Calvino ultimately a personal choice, and, constructing a universal definition of what constitutes a Classic Book seems to him to be an impossibility, since, as Calvino says “There is nothing for it but for all of us to invent our own ideal libraries of classics.” Most experts agree that a strong foundation in the classics makes your education more enjoyable. 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. 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. The term itself is closely related to Western Canon and to various college/university Senior Comprehensive Examination Reading Lists. Wikipedia defines a classic book as 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. Montgomery, the Classic Book Library is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, to anyone with a passion for reading! ![]() Welcome to Classic Book Library, a free resource providing information on classic books across multiple genres.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |