The classics project’s origins
What is a classic work? From ancient times to the present, there has been a huge accumulation of books on a multitude of topics. People all have their own standards for deciding which books to read and enjoy. Likewise, there are different ways of determining which of these are classics.
“The designation of a book as a ‘classic’ can’t be decided through a vote,” says Chen Fang-ming, a writer and a professor at the Graduate Institute of Taiwanese Literature at National Chengchi University. “When people of different ethnicities, genders and socio-economic statuses read a classic, they all can draw enrichment from them. As one person after another reads them, they gradually become classics.”
Ann Lang, artistic director of the Spring Sun Performing Arts Troupe, says that books worthy of being deemed classics are those that have “in different situations, at different times in one’s life, and in different memories prompted fireworks through reading by providing realizations about the meaning of life in that realm between understanding and the lack of it.” As one grows in age and memories deepen, these classics take on new meanings in one’s mind. “Reading is like the sea: It nourishes all the life forms within it. They grow more beautiful and swim farther and dive deeper thanks to it.”
Eslite chairman Robert Wu explains that these books help people to find value within themselves and provide important access to a realm of reflection in their daily lives. He has a particular fondness for Erich Fromm’s The Art of Loving and Man for Himself: An Inquiry into the Psychology of Ethics. Although Taiwan’s Chinese-language editions of these books are out-of-print titles from Zhiwen Publishing House, they are not books that should be allowed to disappear amid the sea of titles over the course of time. “One book can change a person’s life. Reading makes life richer and more beautiful.” It is the pursuit of these universal values that is a motivating force behind the “Reading Classics Together” project.
Eslite kicked off the project in March, and it will continue for three years. Now in stage two, Eslite is inviting the editors-in-chief of ten publishing houses to each recommend ten books from their own catalogs—100 books altogether—during each of the five separate stages, resulting in a total of 500 titles. For Taiwan’s readers, they are picking books that both celebrate the power of reading and at the same time mold a conception of “classics” for this era.
Eslite’s planning director Shining Lin describes the start of the process: “We send out invitations to publishing houses and then through the Reading Classics Together project give each book a chance to have its profound significance exposed again. Even if a book has fallen from favor and is no longer popular, we want to point out how it runs counter to the mainstream, believing that these books can stand the test of time and win over those readers thirsty for knowledge.” During the process the planning team has often expressed gratitude and admiration for the editors: “If it weren’t for these editors’ rich and unique visions and their determination to publish books, we would lose the chance to read so many cherished classics.”
These covers for the new series of classics give them a new identity that eschews the cool and the flashy. The covers seemingly cast the entire series in a new light, providing a sense of elegance to the prospect of reading the classics.