What Is a Classic?
by Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve · Qu'est-ce qu'un classique?
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1850
- Form
- Essay
- Language
- French
- Length
- Short · 15 ppunder 120 pages
- Difficulty
- Moderate2 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendThe Harvard Classics, Volume 32: Literary and Philosophical EssaysP. F. Collier and Son, 1910Printed with the companion essay on Montaigne, which is why it is on the list; free online.
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One of the Monday Chats Sainte-Beuve wrote for the Paris press, dated October 1850. He asks what makes a writer a classic and answers that it is not conformity to ancient rules but the enrichment of the human mind in a form that is at once new and old, large and fine, easily contemporary with every age. He surveys Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Goethe and the French seventeenth century, and imagines the classics as a temple of taste that keeps admitting new members.
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The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns What Is a Classic? are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.