Second, a bestseller from long ago, since by definition it had a big audience, can illuminate the popular tastes, preoccupations, and prejudices of the time. First, a past bestseller can show us what life was like back then - better, I think, than can some classic from the same period, which often draws us more to itself as a book, for its genius, than to an involvement with the period it describes. With so many books to read out there - innumerable classics, plus the latest all-the-rage books which are clamoring for attention, not to mention the relaxing “comfort reading” of reliable mystery series – why bother to read a bestseller, with no particularly outstanding literary merit, from more than 100 years ago? I can think of at least 3 reasons.
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