Do you think books we consider to be classics would have a hard time being published today?

Yes. How books are written today has evolved. There's a lot of narrative and exposition that wouldn't be tolerated in today's book. For example, Pride and Prejudice. There's a lot of narrative and telling of what's happening. That kind of writing was perfectly fine back when Jane Austen was writing. The writing/publishing/reading climate today is much different and readers expect differently of books. So, it's not necessarily that the classics are wrong in how they were written, they were right for that point-in-time. Just like today. How we write novels today might not be acceptable 100 years from now and people will be asking this same question about books like Harry Potter or Atonement or any book that most people think is great today but might never be published if the author tried 100 years from now.

But, then again, if Jane Austen were alive today, she'd be writing by today's standard and the book will be written differently and up to standards. So, it could very well be published today because it will be written within today's writing standards.

Most definitely. It took centuries for some of those books to become a classic. They were significant to one particular era - they depict the mentality, ethics, behavior and the language of an era. It's because they bring a valuable message or because they were written with congeniality that people still can appreciate them, maybe even relate to them. And if you look at the books that get published nowadays.... Boy. There's no way any publisher would appreciate e.g. Crime and Punishment today. That's because it has practically no action what so ever. Most of the books we get today are concentrated on the plot development, less on characters. Stories are valued from a different perspective, a perception of a genius is very different today than it was one or two centuries ago...

So yes, they would have a hard time. Thanks God they were published when they were.

Oh yes, a lot of classics wouldn't be published today. My hubby just quoted some publishers/editors not too long ago about how Tolkien wouldn't stand a chance of publication these days because of his style of writing. But back in the 60's it was more acceptable to craft a story the way he did. Similarly, Shakespeare would never be published due to many reasons involving word usage, grammar, theme handling, etc. Other authors like Dickens, Jane Austen, and many of the "greats" would find it difficult to sell today because they tell their stories more so than "show" it. But again, back in that day and age, it was an acceptable and preferable way to tell a story.

So the answer is yes. And this is mainly due to the fact that the reader demographic and their attitudes, trends, beliefs, tastes have changed drastically. We're less patient nowadays, we're pressed for time, we're just not a good audience for many authors who have written the classics. (Speaking in general terms).

If a publisher nowadays thinks a book would need a lot of work to make it marketable, they generally won't offer to publish it (unless the author is already well-known). They're not short of publishable manuscripts. But your general point stands. I think just about any book written before 1950 wouldn't get published today. Movies and TV have made readers impatient. For example, we don't want long atmospheric descriptions of exotic locations - we've seen them on travel programmes, or we've been there ourselves.

A more interesting question - and much harder to answer - is which, if any, of the writers of classic novels would be able to write something that meets the current definition of "publishable" or "marketable", were they alive today.

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