Which books could become classics?

[Anna Begins]

 My point is, with that many books being published each year (and I'm sure in the last couple of years, the UK number being batted around is now much closer to 200,000), will there be any books that will become classics that will have the mix of quality of writing and are enjoyable, timeless stories that people will want to keep reading, that enough people will be able to find and keep buying and reading in the future, when there are so many books being published each year.  At the moment, we're close to 2 million new books per decade - how will any of those find enough of a foothold to be able to make them classics of the future?

Oh- I totally get your point.  I merely posted the list because it did have some contemporary books on it and some recognizable ones, just for comparison.  Definitely A Tale of Two Cities can be considered a classic. 

Now, which could be a modern classic, one can only decide.   A best seller like HP or a lesser selling book, but popular too- like A Handmaids Tale?  I'm not sure about the last 20 years, some say A Handmaids tale, I might be bias because I hated it, some, The Hunger Games, again, bias because I loved it or The Help, I haven't gotten to it yet.   

I guess the question is for everyone, what is a classic and what is a classic to you.  Then. maybe we can figure out, somewhat, what a new classic would be.  Timeless?  Best written?  Best selling?  I dunno that's why I stayed out of this thread  Your comment on the quality of writing vs sells got me thinking about it.

[chesilbeach]

Timeless?  Best written?  Best selling?  I dunno that's why I stayed out of this thread  Your comment on the quality of writing vs sells got me thinking about it.

 

I think that's why I've resisted choosing anything too! I'm not sure any of the books that've been mentioned will really make it to "classic" status. I think there's also a country divide. For example, I always got the impression that Ayn Rand books were already classics in the US, yet I rarely see them over here, either in new or second hand book shops, nor in the library, so perhaps future classics will be more country dependent?

 

But then again, perhaps it will be more that authors will become classics rather than individual books, although thinking about it, perhaps that's the case already … Dickens, Austen, Dostoyevsky? Perhaps the Nobel Prize for Literature will point us in one direction … Saramago, Coetzee, Lessing?

Edited July 24, 2014 by chesilbeach

[Calexa]

In let's say 200 years, which books from the past 20 years (1994-2014) do you think have a good chance of becoming classics -- if any?

 

The Kite Runner -- Khaled Hosseini

Gilead -- Marilynne Robinson

Life of Pi – Yann Martel

The Shipping News --E. Annie Proulx

Cloud Atlas -- David Mitchell

A Fine Balance -- Rohinton Mistry

Both The Road and No Country for Old Men -- Cormac McCarthy

Fight Club -- Chuck Palahniuk

The Horse Whisperer-- Nicholas Evans

 

Are a few contemporary books off the top of my head that I think will eventually be classified as classics...or more specifically modern classics (books published after WWII).

 

I guess what is perceived as a 'classic' is subjective, as it is with all things. Even those books already deemed as classics are always open to dispute to why they warrant being on such an esteemed list.

 

[frankie]

I wonder how many contemporary books today will become classics, just because of the vast numbers of books that are published today?  I'm not necessarily talking about here on the forum, but generally, popularity is now judged by sales figures, but is rarely a sign of the quality of the writing.  The quality of literature is often (wrongly, I believe) said to be the preserve of literary awards, but again, I wonder how many award winners are enjoyable and timeless reading experiences, which I think is part of the requirement for a book to become a classic?  Are we so overwhelmed by numbers that we can't see the wood for the trees?

 

That is an excellent point! Oh dear. The competition is so fierce these days. And as a non-native English speaker I am forever thinking about these things in terms of books that are originally written in English vs ones that are not. The public reading Finnish books is so much smaller than the one reading English (books written in English) books. Which is both a blessing as well as a curse. Not that many Finnish novels become all that well known internationally, but the ones that do, stand out more because there aren't that many of them. 

[Anna Begins]

Fight Club -- Chuck Palahniuk

 

Ya know, I've been pondering this one.  It might, it just could become one.  I don't know though, in 200 years, maybe all the violence would seems not as...violent.  Just as luck would have it, that would be the one of his- not Damned or Choke, etc.

And I think The Kite Runner is a good one too.

[willoyd]

Missed the bulk of this thread as I was away on holiday, but it's so interesting, I'm going to give it a go.

Quite a few of those suggested don't fall in the 1994-2014 remit. Handmaid Tale for instance is, for me, an obvious candidate for future classic, but it was published in 1985.

So, for the last twenty years, a few suggestions, including some suggested already (I don't actually like all of them, but think they've got the capacity to become a 'classic').

The Ghost Road - Pat Barker
The Life of Pi - Yann Martell
The Corrections, Freedom - Jonathan Franzen
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth (1993?)
The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
The Road, No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy
Cloud Atlas, Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet - David Mitchell
Austerlitz - WG Sebald
Oryx and Crake, - Margaret Atwood
Gilead - Marilynne Robinson
Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel

Two I think should, but probably won't:
The Sea Road - Margaret Elphinstone (along with Voyageurs and The Light)
This Thing of Darkness - Harry Thompson

Also suggested to me by other members of the family:
Disgrace - JM Coetzee
Snow - Orhan Pamuk
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - Susannah Clarke (I've read this, and am personally not sure).
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon
The Human Stain - Philip Roth

The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

Edited August 15, 2014 by willoyd

[Anna Begins]

Oryx and Crake, - Margaret Atwood

 

What did you think of this?  I disliked The Handmaids Tale, but would like to try something else of hers.

[willoyd]

What did you think of this?  I disliked The Handmaids Tale, but would like to try something else of hers.

Can't say I liked it (I didn't like Handmaid's Tale either) - I'm not a fan of dystopian fiction (understatement!) - but the question wasn't about whether I liked it, but which books I thought might become classics. TBH, it's getting on for 10 years since I read it, before I started writing reviews, and I've really only retained an overall impression. It did make an impression though!

[Anna Begins]

 - but the question wasn't about whether I liked it, but which books I thought might become classics.

Oh- I know, I was just going off topic a tad   I haven't heard anything about her other works.

[emelee]

I really enjoy dystopian fiction (and film), and I would say Margaret Atwood's novels could become classics. But I prefer Kallocain by Karin Boye and 1984 by George Orwell. At least I prefer Atwood over Cormac McCarthy.