There are many classic movies. For me the big one is “Casablanca” because each time I watch it I enjoy it more and get something different out of it. When it comes to songs, Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” comes to mind. Each time I hear it I imagine different backgrounds, different lives for each of the bar’s poor lost souls.
Lots of us shudder if someone recommends that we read a classic. That’s because of the associations that come with them; we think about school assignments of boring stories from long ago, stories we could never relate to. Let’s face it – we also think of the Cliff Notes! Well, shudder if you must, because I’m going to recommend some classics now, but I promise there’ll be no quiz and no pressure.
What the heck is a classic anyway? The word “timeless” always comes to mind; classics are not tied to one time period. I looked up the term recently and found these ideas: “a book which with each rereading offers as much of a sense of discovery as the first reading;” “a book that has never exhausted all it has to say to its readers;” “books your fathers give you and you keep them to give to your children.”
Often it’s the stage of our lives that determines what we get out of a classic story. You can read a book like “To Kill a Mockingbird” in high school and just see it as a good story. But twenty years later, with the experiences you’ve encountered in the world, you’ll relate to it on a completely different level.
So here is a list of books that are timeless, and therefore merit being called classics.
Harper Lee – To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) Racial tensions and attitudes in the small-town South. Have we really changed over the last few decades, or are we just kidding ourselves?
Charles Dickens – David Copperfield (1850) An autobiographical coming-of-age story relating all the struggles we go through to get to know ourselves.
George Orwell – 1984 (1949) A cautionary tale for any citizen of the world, the story is prophetic in its portrayal of media manipulation and technology. “Big Brother is Watching” has never seemed scarier.
Herman Melville – Moby Dick (1851) Not just a fish tale. There’s so much it’s impossible to summarize. It shows how persistence and having a goal can sometimes grow into a deadly obsession.
Jane Austen – Pride and Prejudice (1813) Often called a novel of manners, it’s full of comedy, quirky characters, and romance. Is it smarter to marry for love or money?
John Steinbeck – The Grapes of Wrath (1939) Struggles of a poor family trying to survive during the Dust Bowl era. Immigrants all over the world today have the same experiences.
Willa Cather – My Antonia (1918) A remarkable heroine brings to life the American West in the 19th Century. There are universal themes of friendship, innocence and maturity, and the power of the past.
Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Scarlet Letter (1850) Hypocrisy and hatred hide under a thin veneer of puritanism. Don’t be surprised if the characters remind you of people you know.
Richard Adams – Watership Down (1972) A modern allegory. Forget that they’re talking rabbits and listen to what they have to say about heroism, leadership, and community.
These are not all the classics by a long shot. But I encourage you to go back and try some that you might not have chosen in your younger days. Happy reading!
