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Why Read the Classics? (Penguin Modern Classics)
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| List Price: | £9.99 |
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Product Description
Why Read the Classics? is an elegant defence of the value of great literature by one of the finest authors of the last century. Beginning with an essay on the attributes that define a classic (number one - classics are those books that people always say they are ‘rereading’, not ‘reading’), this is an absorbing collection of Italo Calvino’s witty and passionate criticism.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #81275 in Books
- Published on: 2009-05-28
- Original language: English
- Binding: Paperback
- 288 pages
Editorial Reviews
Review
'Enthusiasm and intelligence: these are the essential qualities of the critic. Calvino, himself a novelist of rare quality, possessed both generously. This is a book to read for itself, and also because it will send you back to other books to read, either again in a new way, or for the first time... Superb' Daily Telegraph 'This volume itself is a classic book at bedtime, a seductive invitation to forgotten opportunities or rereading' The Times
About the Author
Italo Calvino, one of Italy's finest postwar writers, has delighted readers around the world with his deceptively simple, fable-like stories. He was born in Cuba in 1923 and raised in San Remo, Italy; he fought for the Italian Resistance from 1943-45. His major works include Cosmicomics (1968), Invisible Cities (1972), and If on a winter's night a traveler (1979). He died in Siena in 1985. Martin L. McLaughlin is Professor of Italian and Fiat-Serena Professor of Italian Studies at the University of Oxford where he is a Fellow of Magdalen College. In addition to his published academic works he is the English translator of Umberto Eco and Italo Calvino among many others.
Customer Reviews
Like dipping your toe in cool intellectual water.
Beautifully produced and filled with Calvino's calm, yet amusing, insights into his selection of classics.
Essential culture
If you have read a bit of Calvino then you will know enough to trust the title. If you have ever been in a book shop and not known what book to buy, this should be your guide. If intelligence were rated on ones ability to perceive the same thing in different ways, then reading the classics (after reading this book) will provide that intelligence.
