Why Read the Classics?

By Italo Calvino, translated by Martin Mclaughlin

Publisher: Penguin Modern Classics

Paperback

Pages: 288

ISBN: 9780141189703

Why Read the Classics? is an elegant defence of the value of great literature by one of the finest authors of the last century. Beginning with an essay on the attributes that define a classic (number one - classics are those books that people always say they are 'rereading', not 'reading'), this is an absorbing collection of Italo Calvino's witty and passionate criticism.