Classics are often associated with old dusty books; a clothbound cover desperately trying to hold together hundreds of pages of yellow paper filled with blurry, ineligible text. That is far from the truth. Many classics address the same topics as young-adult or modern fiction while being intellectually stimulating and educational.
Author: Natalia Laskowska
Whether it be because of the vocabulary, historical context, or the societal norms of the time, reading a classic often requires more intellectual effort than modern literature. While reading a classic, you will not only discover a fictional world but also broaden your cultural horizons and understanding of the author’s historical period.
It’s commonplace that the classics are boring, but your reading choice doesn’t have to be The Catcher in the Rye. There are thousands of other books, that you may have never even heard of, which are readable and easy to understand. Reading classics is a gradual process: you start with the easier ones and move to the older or longer ones once your attention span and understanding broaden.
The Picture of Dorian Gray – a 19th-century story of an aging portrait, right? Well, it is so much more than that. Dorian Gray is, in fact, the first “Sephora Kid”, whose retinol and collagen are a portrait made by his friend in love with him. The novel explores the themes of narcissism, sin and redemption, youth and beauty as well as hedonism. Essentially, Dorian Gray took Lana Del Rey’s “Young and Beautiful” a little too literally.
Speaking of “Young and Beautiful”, you may know it from the soundtrack of the movie The Great Gatsby, but did you know that it is a movie adaptation of the famous 1925 book by F. Scott Fitzgerald? It is set in post-World War 1 New York and Long Island and shows the decayed social and moral values of the American elites in the 1920s. The author depicts their empty pursuit of pleasure, greed, and cynicism. On a more surface level, the theme of romance is also at the center of the novel, so this is a good alternative to modern romance novels, such as dark romances which romanticize abuse, most of them being essentially of little intellectual value. Overall, this is a great read if you like stories of real love, passion, and yearning.
You may know THE famous yearning monologue of Timothée Chalamet in the 2019 adaptation of Little Women. “It’s no use, Jo, Jo we gotta have it out, I have loved you ever since I’ve known I’ve known you, Jo, I couldn’t help it (…)”. Romance is indeed one of the central themes of the movie adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s 19th-century novel, but so is feminism. Another monologue that stands out is Saoirse Ronan’s. “Women, they have minds, and they have souls, as well as just hearts. And they’ve got ambition, and they’ve got talent, as well as just beauty. And I’m so sick of people saying that love is just all a woman is fit for.” Little Women was truly ahead of its time and is a great starting point for reading classics (I’d suggest reading the novel before watching the movie).
Regarding movie adaptations, another great one is Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. This novel is mainly on the theme of romance and women’s fates in 19th-century England, but it is also a relatively easy read for beginners in classics.
There are, of course, countless other themes explored in classical literature. Some dystopian classics include George Orwell’s famous 1984 and Animal Farm, which explore the themes of totalitarianism, language and thought control, independence, and identity. Another great example is Margaret Atwood’s modern classic The Handmaid’s Tale, its main focus is on gender roles, freedom, fertility, and identity, drawing on the feminist idea that in a male-dominated society, the way men regard and look at women is shown in forms of control and violence, exploring the powerlessness of women in a patriarchal society. These are great reads for fans of Hunger Games, Divergent, or Maze Runner.
French classic literature, too, is extremely broad, with Flaubert’s “Madame Bovary”, Hugo’s “Les Misérables”, Camus’ “The Stranger” or Dumas’s “The Count of Monte Cristo”
You can also, of course, have a glimpse into 19th-century Russia under the Tsarist regime with Dostoyevsky, be transported into Russian aristocratic society with Tolstoy, or read Nabokov’s 1955 shocking and disturbing novel Lolita, which denounces pedophilia through the adult narrator’s obsession and victimization of a 12-year-old girl. Classics explore the universal themes of love, power, morality, and the complexities of the authors’ societies. Far from being merely “old dusty books”, these works offer profound insights into the human experience. They are far from being outdated: their timeless truths continue to resonate with readers. Classical literature encourages critical thinking and broadens cultural awareness, as well as develops a larger understanding of the world as it is today. So, what’s your next read going to be?
Cover image by: garten-gg – Pixabay
Edited by: Sophie Van Den Berge, Johanna Larsson Krausová
