What makes a classic?

"A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say," Italo Calvino said.

For those of us who have wondered what makes a literary classic, that may be as good a definition as any. If each generation can read a book and find that it has something to say to that generation and if each person can reread a book and discover that it says something this time that it didn't say last time, then you have a classic.

Most books frankly do not fit that definition. Read a typical best-selling novel from even a decade ago and it probably does not hold the same magic that it once did. You may even wonder how it ever became a bestseller. Or reread a book you enjoyed just a couple of years ago, and it may not entertain you or inform you nearly as much this time. You know the ending. It's all familiar. There's nothing new in it. There's no excitement left. What you have is definitely not a classic.

Children often enjoy hearing the same book read to them at bedtime over and over again. To them, this is a classic story. Each time they hear it, it delights them again. For adult readers, classic books work in much the same way. Some people reread the same book every year or two. They never tire of it because they always find something new in it. They view the characters in a different way each time. They find themes they had not realized were there previously. They may simply enjoy revisiting familiar characters.

And then there are old books that each generation discovers anew. They are often taught in school. Or they may be suggested by parents, who may have learned about the books from their own parents. Books like Little Women, Black Beauty, Journey to the Center of the Earth and To Kill a Mockingbird fit into this category. And of course, all fairy tales and nursery rhymes have become classics in the same way.

Classics are almost impossible to predict at the time they are first published. Some books seem like classics, then quickly disappear. Others don't make waves, then are rediscovered and become recognized as classics years later. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is one such book.

Some classics can fade in and out of fashion as tastes and attitudes change. Some classics speak mainly to intellectuals, those with the kind of mind that can appreciate something like Paradise Lost. Other classics speak to more ordinary readers. I was surprised recently to find that Jacqueline Susann's 1966 novel Valley of the Dolls remains in print. Does that make it a classic? I guess it does, at least according to Italo Calvino.