classic, n.Definitions

A Classic is a book one can praise without having read.

A Classic is a book that survives the circumstances that made it possible yet alone keeps those circumstances alive.

The Classic is a locus of social acceptance which itself becomes a vision of form that irradiates it.

A Classic is a work of literature that refuses to go away, that remains confronting us until we do something about it, which means also doing something about ourselves.

The Classic is a book which, upon re-reading, you do not see more in it than you did before... you see more in you than was there before.

A Classic is a successful book that has survived the reaction of the next period or generation, after which it becomes safe, like a style in architecture or furniture. It acquires a picturesque dignity to take the place of its fashion.

A Classic is a book which, with each rereading, offers as much of a sense of discovery as the first reading.

A Classic is a book which generations of men, driven by various reasons, read with that same initial fervor and that same mysterious loyalty.