classics

As the 100th anniversary of Ian Fleming’s birth approaches, there’s no dearth of hoopla happening over both the author and his famous spy. Over on the Guardian blog, Sam Jordison talks about why the James Bond novels, though low-brow, should be considered classics. I have to agree with him, though perhaps Fleming’s wife wouldn’t; she felt he was “hammering out pornography.”

Could out-of-print books be a phenomenon of the past? That's the question that will be facing publishers, agents and authors after the launch on June 2 of a new imprint from Faber and Faber designed to make available a large number of titles which until now have been out of print.

An awesome idea IMO.

Along with everyone else, I presume. In yet another survey, we’re told that: “One in 10 Britons admit cheating the system at school by watching film versions of classic novels.” More strange stats here, such as: “Dickensian Britain has been reborn in the modern binge-drinking culture, according to 54%,” while “47% believe that many young people are suffering from Peter Pan syndrome.”

Penguin USA will launch a line of enhanced e-book classics this May, beginning with Pride and Prejudice. The new e-books, which will be compatible with all e-book devices, will feature an array of features, including a filmography, period book reviews, recipes and black-and-white illustrations. Price will be the same as the print edition, $8.

Rare works by Charles Dickens, including a page from the original manuscript of "Pickwick Papers" and an illustration of the "Oliver Twist" character Bill Sikes, are going on the auction block. The Kenyon Starling Library of Charles Dickens is expected to fetch more than $2 million when it is sold at Christie's on April 2.

Great literature never dies. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby has found a new group of followers among immigrant students who can relate to and find inspiration in the novel’s themes of possibility and aspiration.

“One of the strange things about our relation to the 19th-century novel is that everything we want from fiction is already there, in particular the mystery that eludes us of how to produce the highest kind of literary art and give it narrative momentum, how to achieve language as precise as poetry while also telling a compelling story.” And that’s why they are called classics.

"More than 50 years after its initial publication, Ray Bradbury's sci-fi fable still resonates. Often the most enduring books often take a while to seep into the popular consciousness. When they get there, of course, some of them even change the world, or at the very least the way we view it."

I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to the spirit of Herman Melville, his sailors in The White Whale do indeed eat. Stubb has a nice whale steak fixed by the cook. Do we really read the classics as the epitome of human experience or like the article on sexy lines, have we become a New Rome ready to be sacked?

Yesterday was the 164th anniversary of the publication of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, who wrote the work to pay off his debts. To celebrate belatedly, here’s an exhibition of the Dickens collection of Christmas writing from the University of South Carolina—photos and a brief history.