I love classic novels (duh, I am an English major). Often, people wonder what makes something a classic. To me, the term is hard to define, but I know a classic novel when I read one. The language is beautiful and elegant, the storyline is engaging and the meaning is often far more important than it appears on the surface. Here are 10 quotes from some of my favorites that will prove to you than some novels are appropriately labeled "classics."
1. "To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love." - Jane Austen, "Pride and Prejudice"
2. “I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Great Gatsby"
3. "I was half in love with her by the time we sat down. That's the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they're not much to look at, or even if they're sort of stupid, you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are. Girls. Jesus Christ. They can drive you crazy. They really can." - J.D. Salinger, "The Catcher in the Rye"
5. “You have to quit confusing a madness with a mission.” - Flannery O'Connor, "The Violent Bear it Away"
6. “But whatever came, she had resolved never again to belong to another than herself.” - Kate Chopin, "The Awakening"
7. "Isn't it pretty to think so?" - Ernest Hemingway, "The Sun Also Rises"
8. "Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same." - Emily Bronte, "Wuthering Heights"
9. “I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the pumpkins, and I did not want to be anything more. I was entirely happy. Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge. At any rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep.” - Willa Cather, "My Antonia" (my favorite American classic)
10. “People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.” - Harper Lee, "To Kill a Mockingbird"
There is so much beauty to be found in classic novels, hit the books!
