Lifestyle
Henry Eliot, Creative Editor at Penguin Classics on why everyone should read literature
Updated : Nov 24, 2018, 06:25 AM IST
It’s the first time in five years that Henry Eliot, Creative Editor at Penguin Classics, is not working on a book. “I’m taking a break and enjoying my trip to India,” he’d told us a couple of days ago when he was in Mumbai. Henry, who is currently in the country for Penguin Random House India’s first ever month-long Classics Festival, also had Bengaluru, Kolkata and Chennai on his schedule. “My visit coincided with a literature festival, and I met a number of young writers who wanted to learn about the classics to see how that would help them in their own writing. I also met a group of schoolchildren, and was so impressed with how much they knew about classic works of literature,” he said. More from him...
I’ve written three books now — the first being an unusual guide to London called Curiocity, which I co-wrote with a friend. The second was a history of mazes and labyrinths and how they have been built, called Follow This Thread and the third is a book directly about the Penguin classics — The Penguin Classics Book. All three of the books have been inspired by the classics and literature. Curiocity had a lot of literary references in it as there were so many writers who lived and worked in London. The book on mazes too, has literary references, as there are so many mazes in literature, right from Iliad to Alice in Wonderland. The third book, of course, is all about the Penguin classics, and the reading helped there.
It’s a combination of all those things. Anyone who is already a classics reader, gets to see the entire collection at one place and explore it. Another big reason for the fest is to shine a light on the classics and show people who may find them intimidating or have read them at school and associate them with hard work, that the reason they survived are because they are so radical, special and amazing and to encourage people to enjoy them.
If I had to choose one reason, it’s that the classics allow you to connect with another human across time and space and inhabit their mind and see the world through their eyes. It enlarges your appreciation of the world and the experience of being alive. Reading the classics expands your horizons. It improves your experience of being alive.
I think I’d choose 1984 by George Orwell because it’s so well-written and has a gripping plot but it’s also terrifying and a great political novel as well. It really sets out a vision for what we’d all like to avoid in our own government, at the same time being a thrilling and a beautiful read.