What makes a classic novel? Plus six Booker Prize classics | The Booker Prize Podcast, Episode 33
7When does a book transcend from contemporary literature to a classic? Does someone have to confirm its classic status? And can all Booker Prize novels be considered classics just by being part of the Booker canon? This, and more, is what Jo and James are trying to get to the heart of in this week's episode. Listen in as they discuss what makes a classic novel and chat about which Booker books should be known as classics.
In this episode Jo and James:
- Consider what makes a classic
- Each pick three novels from the Booker Library that are – or should be – considered classics
- Discuss the plots of their chosen novels and why they are deserving of classic status
Reading list:
- Something to Answer For by P.H. Newby: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/something-to-answer-for
- A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/a-month-in-the-country
- How Late It Was, How Late by James Kelman: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/how-late-it-was-how-late
- St. Urbain's Horseman by Mordecai Richler: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/st-urbains-horseman
- Atonement by Ian McEwan: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/atonement
- The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/the-remains-of-the-day
- The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/the-handmaids-tale
- Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/shuggie-bain
- Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/schindlers-ark
- The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/the-english-patient
- Autobiography by Morrisey
- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
- Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/midnights-children
- The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/the-siege-of-krishnapur
- The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/the-conservationist
- Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/oscar-and-lucinda
- The Ghost Road by Pat Barker: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/the-ghost-road
- Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/disgrace
- Staying On by Paul Scott: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/staying-on
- The Famished Road by Ben Okri: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/the-famished-road
- Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/cloud-atlas
- The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/the-line-of-beauty
- Autumn by Ali Smith: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/autumn
- Crudo by Olivia Laing
- No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/no-one-is-talking-about-this
- Waterland by Graham Swift: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/waterland
- G. by John Berger: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/g
- Middlemarch by George Eliot
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
- Ulysses by James Joyce
- David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
- To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
- Glass, Irony and God by Anne Carson
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Read Alex Clark's piece, “Which novels in the Booker Prize archives should be considered classics?”: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/features/which-booker-prize-novels-should-be-considered-classics
A full transcript of the episode is available at our website: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/features/the-booker-prize-podcast-episode-33-what-makes-a-classic-novel
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The Booker Prize is the leading literary award in the English speaking world, and has brought recognition, reward and readership to outstanding fiction for over five decades. Each year, the prize is awarded to what is, in the opinion of the judges, the best novel of the year written in English and published in the UK and Ireland.
Previous winners include The Testaments by Margaret Atwood, Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, The Promise by Damon Galgut, Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, The Bone People by Keri Hulme and many more.
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