The Classics are, in my opinion, a rather broad area that I suspect a lot of people don’t entirely understand. For whatever reason, a lot of us tend to get a little awkward at the mention of the term because we associate it with superiority, or something perhaps high-ranking, but I think a lot of this discomfort affiliated with the term itself stems from a lack of understanding toward the Classics as a concept.
The Classics, as a single term, actually encompasses more than one meaning. For example, Classics can refer to highly popular and often historic productions such as films, as well as books. But, simultaneously, Classics also refers to the study of Ancient Greek and Roman literature in addition to their original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin.
I thought it might be sort of fun to dedicate a post to some literary Classics seeing as it fits my own educational background, and also because I’m curious how many you’re familiar with. The following list comes from penguin.co.uk.
“1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1813)
“2. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960)
“3. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)
“4. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (1967)
“5. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (1965)
“6. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (1966)
“7. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932)
“8. I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith (1948)
“9. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (1847)
“10. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1866)
“11. The Secret History by Donna Tartt (1992)
“12. The Call of the Wild by Jack London (1903)
“13. Persuasion by Jane Austen (1818)
“14. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (1862)
“15. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (1851)
“16. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (1927)
“17. The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen (1938)
“18. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1823)
“19. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (1966)
“20. The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley (1953),” the web page states.
The web page provides a list of the top 100 literary Classics if you’re interested in learning about more.
Photo by Olena Bohovyk on Unsplash
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