A customer asked me about books being considered "classics." How do they get that designation?

According to A Handbook to Literature, a classic is "a piece of literature that by common consent has achieved a recognized superior status in literary history; also an author of similar standing."

Another definition can be found on Esther Lombardi’s excellent About.com site:

• A classic usually expresses some artistic quality--an expression of life, truth, and beauty.
  
  
• A classic stands the test of time. The work is usually considered to be a representation of the period in which it was written; and the work merits lasting recognition. In other words, if the book was published in the recent past, the work is not a classic.
  
  
• A classic has a certain universal appeal. Great works of literature touch us to our very core beings--partly because they integrate themes that are understood by readers from a wide range of backgrounds and levels of experience. Themes of love, hate, death, life, and faith touch upon some of our most basic emotional responses.
  
  
• A classic makes connections. You can study a classic and discover influences from other writers and other great works of literature. Of course, this is partly related to the universal appeal of a classic. But, the classic also is informed by the history of ideas and literature--whether unconsciously or specifically worked into the plot of the text.
  

Lombardi also discusses modern classics. She makes the point that a modern classic would have to have been written after World War I or possibly World War II because those events marked major events in global history and changed the way we view the world.

Here are some lists of classics to get you started:

• Time Magazine 100 Best English language novels from 1923 to the present
  
  
• Library Thing Most Often Tagged Classic Fiction
  
  
• A great list of links from the Internet Public Library/Librarians’ Internet Index
  
  
• Although compiled in 1999, the lists from Modern Library are useful.
  

Finally, here’s a site that provides "ultra-condensed" classics, good for a laugh but not for an assignment!