{"product_id":"why-read-the-classics","title":"Why Read the Classics?","description":"\u003cp\u003eItalo Calvino was not only a prolific master of fiction  he was also an uncanny reader of literature  a keen critic of astonishing range. Why Read the Classics? is the most comprehensive collection of Calvinos literary criticism available in English  accounting for the enduring importance to our lives of crucial writers of the Western canon. Here--spanning more than two millennia  from antiquity to postmodernism--are thirty-six immediately relevant  elegantly written  accessible ruminations on the writers  poets  and scientists who meant most to Calvino at different stages of his life.  Following the title essay  which explores fourteen definitions of \"the classic \" Calvino offers writings that are at once critical appraisals and personal appreciations of  among others: Homer  Xenophon  Ovid  Pliny  Nezami  Ariosto  Cardano  Galileo  Defoe  Voltaire  Diderot  Ortes  Stendhal  Balzac  Dickens  Flaubert  Tolstoy  Twain  Henry James  Stevenson  Conrad  Pasternak  Gadda  Montale  Hemingway  Ponge  Borges  and Queneau.  At a time when the Western canon and the very notion of \"literary greatness\" have come under increasing disparagement by the vanguard of so-called multiculturalism  Why Read the Classics? gives us an inspiriting corrective.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44945402953781,"sku":"ByrdShop_0679415246","price":32.35,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780679415244_3f387588-7306-4226-a8e7-6371ddf3067c.jpg?v=1771764222","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/why-read-the-classics","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}