What is your favorite classic novel? Do you have a favorite classic children’s story?
Travel along with me this month as Max and I explore some ancient and not-so-ancient books labeled as classics.
I have chosen to feature classics for the month of September because, as a college English major, I always looked forward to a fall semester when I devoured many time-worn books—and sometimes when they tried to devour me.
In the early months of Max’s life, I exposed her to classic poetry like “Hickory Dickory Dock” and “Little Bo Peep.” As she grew older, we read together Aesop’s fables and the works of Beatrix Potter and the Brothers Grimm.
As a teenager Max now devours many of the British classics like Pride and Prejudice and Shakespeare’s plays. In addition, she somehow finds time to constantly reread Harry Potter, now considered a modern classic.
So, what is a classic? According to Italo Calvino, “A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.”
In Max and Her Stacks illustrator Deb Johnson does a beautiful job of showcasing Max’s shelves of classics and collector books.
When I was fresh out of college with an English degree, I treasured beautiful books. As a brand-new English teacher living in my own home for the first time, I purchased a large bookshelf to house my treasures. I also joined the International Collectors Library, a popular program published by Doubleday in the 1980’s. Every month this company featured a colorful faux-leather volume embossed with gold lettering and a built-in satin bookmark. These treasures would be mailed to me for a fee (unless I returned the enclosed form and opted not to buy a book that month). After several months of buying a few books that I felt I couldn’t live without and buying other books because I failed to return the form, I cancelled my membership. Because I couldn’t afford to pay for housing both myself as well as so many beautiful books, I opted to let the books go.
Nonetheless, like Max, I treasure the few classics that do grace my shelves.
Honestly, I have often struggled to read the classics. However, with the help of my college professors, I grew to understand why so many books have withstood the test of time. These books have caused me to ponder and wonder long after I’ve read the final page. Those talented authors’ words have been filled with lots of chewable cogitations!
As I’ve mentioned, I’m a slow reader, and I’m not a major fan of any writing, classic or modern, which takes three pages to describe a tree. I may be using slight hyperbole there, but I do prefer more dialogue and less description. I’m not sure how I ever made it through Gone with the Wind or The Brothers Karamazov.
I’ll never forget my college Development of the Novel class in which we were assigned eight novels to read in seventeen weeks. The semester course included works like Stendahl’s The Red and the Black and Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. I started the class with high hopes of reading every word of every book. I remember managing the length of Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons, but most of these classics were a major struggle for me. I did attempt to read all the assignments and write my papers from my own thoughts. I received a grade of B+/A- on every paper until the last assignment on Anna Karenina. We had a week and a half left to read this 900-page tome. Most of the students in class had been using CliffsNotes to read summaries and write their essays, and several had suggested I should do the same. I admit I did skip much of the book’s description, and I also caved and consulted the CliffsNotes to help write my paper. Ironically, I received an A on this final assignment.
To this day, I don’t know whether the teacher rewarded me for finally using some practicality or whether she was clueless about what I and most of the rest of the class had done. Bottom line, I received a B in the class—even though all my grades were at least a B+. Oh, well, we live and learn.
At any rate, I do appreciate the classics, and I want this month’s journey to sing the praises of the authors and their works that have “never finished what they have to say.”
In recent years as I have been teaching a Bible and Literature Sunday School class, I have discovered some wonderful devotions that prove the value of classic literature and its ability to speak to us today.
As a great way to begin or end the day for the young women in your life, I highly recommend Rachel Dodge’s devotions on Anne of Green Gables and Little Women and Pride and Prejudice. Young men might also find relevant inspiration in The Book Lover’s Devotional with reflections on All Quiet on the Western Front, The Jungle Book, Lord of the Rings, The Street Lawyer, and many more old and new classics.
Finally, as I’ve mentioned in previous blogs, Bob Hostetler’s The Bard and the Bible can serve to enlighten anyone with an appreciation for Shakespeare.
Max and I want to encourage you to step outside your comfort zone and pick up one of those classics you’ve been meaning to read. The road might be a little rocky at first, and you have our permission to skip some of the detailed description. 🤫 We both think you will be enlightened.
From the classic poetry my mother read to me as a child to those Shakespearean passages I made my students memorize, so many written words have withstood the test of time. Most importantly, the Written Word still speaks to us today, and we should listen.
“[Books] can lull us as would a dream, or they could change us, atom by atom, until we are closer to God. One way is passive, the other animating—both worthy.” . . . “Strangers talking over piles of books do not remain strangers for long. Had I never learned to like books, I would have become the dullest sort of hermit.”—Matthew Pearl’s The Last Bookaneer
“Some books are to be tasted, others are to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”—Francis Bacon
“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s not knowing where you might be swept off to.”—J. R. R. Tolkien
Isaiah 40:8; Proverbs 22:17-21; Deuteronomy 32:7; Jeremiah 6:16; 2 Timothy 4:13
