‘an oldie but a goodie!’ classic literature

‘An Oldie but a goodie!’Classic Literature

Year 10 English – Term I

TJ Ruckendorfer | English Faculty | The Ponds High School

“Great books help you understand, and they help you feel understood.” – John Green

Top 10 Greatest Novels of All Time

WatchMojo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5OlIb4BCnY

Top 10

Greatest

Novels of

All Time

As you watch the video, answer the

following questions:

1. How do the novels on the list

challenge the societal expectations or

norms at the time they were written?

2. What themes were identified in the

novels on this list?

3. How would these themes contribute to

the enduring relevance of these novels?

Characteristics of Classic Literature

Year 10 English – Classic Literature

What makes a book a classic?What do we mean when we say a novel is a classic?


1. The text explores universal human concerns.


Moby-Dick explores universal human

concerns such as brotherhood,

obsession and revenge. Published in

1851, the novel was received poorly in

America and gained international

acclaim after his death in 1891. Moby-

Dick is often read for its exploration of

the conflict between fate versus free will

and has been cited as one of the most

powerful novels written about the sea.


2. It is a pioneering work.


What make to The Catcher in the Rye a

pioneering work? J.D. Salinger’s only full-

length novel, it was once considered a

scandalous story about coming of age,

lust, rebellion and teenage angst. It was

also one of the first novels to feature the

‘teenage voice’ rather than seeing

teenagers through the eyes of adults.


3. The text influences other great works.


What inspired Chinua Achebe to write

Things Fall Apart? Achebe wrote the

book in response to Joseph Conrad’s

classic Heart of Darkness. He also took

the title of the book from the first stanza

of William Butler Yeats’ apocalyptic

poem, The Second Coming:


Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

- William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming, 1919


4. It is respected by authors and experts.


Why is Wuthering Heights popular with

authors and academics? Emily Bronte

created a perdurable novel that has left

its mark on popular culture and has

been embedded into the English

curriculum around the world. Wuthering

Heights has challenged readers, critics

and academics since its publication in

1847 and received mixed reviews on its

release:


“The success is not equal to the abilities of the writer; chiefly because the incidents

are too coarse and disagreeable to be attractive, the very best being improbable,

with a moral taint about them, and the villainy not leading to results sufficient to

justify the elaborate pains taken in depicting it.” – Spectator, 1847

“We rise from the perusal of Wuthering Heights as if we had come fresh from a pest-

house. Read Jane Eyre is our advice, but burn Wuthering Heights.” – Paterson’s

Magazine, 1848

"How a human being could have attempted such a book as the present without

committing suicide before he had finished a dozen chapters, is a mystery. It is a

compound of vulgar depravity and unnatural horrors.” – Graham’s Lady Magazine,

1848


5. The text is challenging through its prose and technical construction.


The most experienced, intellectual, and

seasoned reader can come to a

crossroads when they pick up Ulysses.

The novel is widely known as one of the

most difficult novels due to Joyce’s

layered allusions, stream-of-

consciousness technique and rich

vocabulary. Ironically enough, those

same qualities have made it one of the

most revered book in history, and many

readers who have managed to finish it

have argued that the struggle is worth it.

Pioneers of Literature



What we consider a classic can also be subjective. Horror fans may consider H.P. Lovecraft’s

The Call of Cthulhu and Stephen King’s The Stand to be classics while many academics and

critics would disagree. On occasion, authors may have to defend their genre or works:


In 1927, H.P. Lovecraft defended the weird genre in his seminal essay Supernatural Horror

in Literature.


In The Simple Art of Murder, published in 1950, Raymond Chandler defended the hard-

boiled detective genre as well as criticising crime fiction as art.


Stephen King, a prolific writer who has published sixty-four books and over two-hundred

short stories, has also been forced to defend his craft in Danse Macabre (1981) and On

Writing (2000). In 2003, when King received the National Book Foundation’s Medal of

Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, outraged academics condemned the

decision in no uncertain terms.

Why should we read Classic

Literature?


The classics are the books of which we usually hear people say: “I am rereading…” and never “I am reading…” – Italo Calvino

Why should we read Classic Literature?

“Why Read the Classics?” by Italo Calvino

Why should

we read

Classic

Literature?

As you read through the article answer the following questions:

1. How does Italo Calvino define ‘classic literature’?

2. Does his definition agree with the five points above?

3. According to Calvino, why is reading classic literature so important to us as readers?

‘an oldie but a goodie!’ classic literature

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