Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Interesting questions. What is a "classic"? For me, the answer is that it's a book which is popular, and which has stood the test of time, in the sense of remaining popular to generations of readers after the one for whom it was written. So I guess I'sd say that only "time" can make a book a classic.
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When I was preparing for my English Language State Exam (see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Examination ) we had to read certain number of "classics" in English. There was no list of books, you could choose any book that was "classic". By that time I had read several hundreds of books in English, but I suspected that Stephen King, JRR Tolkien, Terry Pratchett , or even Agatha Christie would not be considered "classic" by the Examination Committee. So I was pressing my teacher -- a member of Committee -- to define what exactly a "classic book" was. After lots of questions I came up with a definition.
A "classic book" is anything your English teacher has read in English, so [s]he can discuss the book with you during the exam ;-)
As far as I could tell, very few Committee members had read anything [in English] except the books they were forced to read for their exams, while they were studying to become English Teachers.