The Classics According to Kenneth Rexroth:

“Rexroth (1905-1982) was a poet and essayist, an influence on the spread of Beat poetry (though not a Beat himself), and a student of languages. His translations of Chinese and Japanese poetry make many beautiful poems accessible to those of us who only know English.

In a series of short essays, he reviewed the classics of world literature from his perspective, which valued art for its involvement with living human beings. In 1985 and 1989, New Directions published 101 of these essays in two paperback volumes, titled Classics Revisited (NDP621, ISBN 0-8112-0988-1) and More Classics Revisited (NDP668, ISBN 0-8112-1083-9). …

In my opinion, publishers of the works that Rexroth recommends should subsidize these two books, and give them away free. And put them on the Web.

…Rexroth’s essays are fascinating, and the reading list is as rewarding as it is challenging. (And you will be appalled at how hard it is to find many of these works in public libraries.) The essays concerning the individual works or authors are the main attraction in these two books, but the introduction to Classics Revisited is also interesting, describing what makes the classics classic. I have provided the entire copyrighted Introduction; please don’t sue me; I mean well.

I have (also provided) a combined list in (approximate) chronological order (the years are not in the original reviews).”