Calvino's "Why Read the Classics?" Thesis

Italo Calvino, who was an Italian journalist in the 1900s, wrote an influential lecture called, "Why Read the Classics?" Instead of telling people to spend more time reading, Calvino defines the word "classics." He gives fourteen different definitions to understand what it means. One example is, "The classics are those books about which you usually hear people saying: 'I'm rereading...', never 'I'm reading...'" (calvino 3) While reading this lecture, one particular passage caught my eye. "All that can be done is for each one of us to invent our own ideal library of our classics; and I would say that one half of it should consist of books we have read and that have meant something for us, and the other half of books which we intend to read and which we suppose might mean something to us." (Calvino 9) This passage popped out because it helps me create the thesis of this lecture. The implicitly stated thesis is that Italo Calvino is telling the readers to find books that after reading them, they can consider them their own classics. People should not read the classics just to read them. Classics are meant to inspire people and make them feel it means something to them.

Calvino, Italo. "Why Read the Classics." Lecture.