When we are asked to think of classic novels, we might immediately rhyme with titles like Moby Dick, War and Peace or The Great Gatsby. The list of books that may be considered classics could be a very long one.
What constitutes a classic has always been the source of some debate, but one thing that can be agreed is that many classics transcend personal taste or contemporary trends. That is to say, that a particular book doesn’t have to necessarily be to your taste to be universally considered a classic.
While Jane Austen, for example, maybe considered one of the greatest novelists of all time, many people don’t find her books to their taste. However, they still will recognize Jane Eyre as a classic.
So what makes a classic? There can be many components that go towards conferring classic status on a book.
Time and influence
Can a book that has been published in the past decade be considered a classic? Many of those books we put in that bracket have been around for decades, if not centuries. The reason why older books are considered classics is that they have heavily influenced work that has come after them. So, for books release now to be considered classics, time will be the biggest test.
Changing perspectives
A classic novel will look at certain issues either through different eyes or from a perspective that hadn’t previously been considered before. Many of Charles Dickens’s novels through an unforgiving light on poverty in Victorian England, for example, and many ways, changed public attitudes.
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