What makes something a classic? Or a best-seller? Two very different answers, I am sure. Quite possibly the only thing they have in common is that eventually, a classic becomes a best seller but it takes decades, sometimes centuries longer.
But what is it about a book that makes it endure? What holds the interest of a diverse and ever-changing society? And this makes me curious, who are the first people that recognize the value besides the author himself? Is it a case of good ideas, good writing, and what is the interpretation of "good" anyway?
As far as best sellers go, unless it becomes a phenomena that holds a place in history because of a particular gimmick or completely new concept or presentation, most will slowly fade from shelves in time.
I look at something like "Candide" and while it obviously has historical value as a satirical view of its time, and in its very nature of having to thinly veil fact in a fiction format, it is a classic as well because it is good reading. It is as entertaining as a masterpiece of satire, although the understanding of the satire is no longer of the passionate urgency nor immediate relevance and danger as it was in its time.
Why do we want to read a book that was written a century ago, are willing to adjust ourselves to an outdated use of language, and how does it become familiar in the reading so that the barrier is easily overcome and we are just readers, not readers from the future that a writer could not possibly have conceived of as his audience.
Just thinkin’.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology