Italo Calvino, an Italian writer, has an authority to write this informative essay that comes from his own reading and writing experience. From reading this essay I could tell that Calvino was a very well-read man. He makes references to several classic novels in this piece including The Odyssey and Kafka, an influential author of classic literature. He also shows his love for books in each of the fourteen definitions he writes of the term ‘classic’. In each definition he proves why the classics are so often universally read and why they almost never cease to amaze their various readers.
From Calvino’s writing experience he shows us his ability to express in words the feeling that reading a classic novel can bring, with definitions such as “A classic is a work which constantly generates a pulviscular cloud of critical discourse around it, but which always shakes the particles off.” The beauty of Calvino’s writing is only part of what makes this essay great, however. It is because of the content of this essay that makes it a unique work that shows us exactly how amazing the feeling of reading a classic novel can be. This is why it is not necessary for Calvino to employ many metaphors or other rhetorical devices.
Calvino, Italo. "Why Read the Classics?" Why Read the Classics? London: Vintage, 2000. 5-8. Print.
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