Reading glasses rest on an open book atop a small stack of worn books beside a vase of dried stems.

Original artwork, not a still

Caxtoniana: Hints on Mental Culture

Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton

In science, read, by preference the newest works; in literature, the oldest. The classics are always modern.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

Bulwer-Lytton splits reading advice in two. Go for the newest work in science, but the oldest in literature. His claim is that the classics never truly age, so a very old book can still feel entirely current.

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