Author: Sophie Gee, Vice Chancellor's Fellow, University of Sydney

I’ve dedicated my professional life to reading and teaching the English classics. The crucial thing about classics is that they start as cutting-edge literary experiments. Think about the events that cause classic writers to put pen to paper: the rise and fall of empires, wars, terrorism, revolution, falling in love, homophobia and gay rights, childbirth, plague, enslavement, freedom, rebellion, the wildest places, people’s living rooms. Like it or not, the whole human world is in these books. Classics are often not easy reads – but all the books I’ve chosen are, as it happens, page-turners. There’s a richness to them,…