Italo Calvino wrote his essay “Why Read the Classics” in a most unique way, one that I had never seen before. Instead of having paragraph after paragraph, or a standard looking paper, he filled it with definitions and attributes of what a classic was. He personified the thousands of classic novels and stories that we all know and love, and made them almost real to us.
The thesis of this essay is implicit. It was difficult to find because the essay itself was extremely complex and in depth, making it difficult to find words that could describe the whole essay. The thesis, I believe, is this, “A classic is the term given to any book which comes to represent the whole universe, a book on a par with ancient talismans.” (Calvino pg 4 par 4) This one sentence is the sum of all classics. It describes them as they are, and includes every aspect of them. This essay not only tells you many ways to describe classics, but it tells you how to tell the difference between a classic and some other work of literature. This thesis is saying that a classic is not an ordinary work, but a more in depth, more meaningful, and more fantastic literary work. Something unlike anything we could ever read. It’s saying that a classic has more meaning. It isn’t something you cannot forget.
Calvino, Italo. "Why Read the Classics?" Why Read the Classics? New York: Vintage, 2000. 3-9. Print.
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