BENGALURU: A festival organised by Penguin Random House India brings book lovers all the classics under one roof. The best part is that the festival is being held at one of the city’s most beloved bookstores, Blossoms Book House. At their newest outlet on Church Street, one can find stacks and stacks of classics — 5,000 individual titles were exported — in that signature orange colour, with the familiar penguin on them.
The festival, which started on November 1, is being held across five Indian cities at five book stores, and Henry Eliot, creative editor at Penguin Classics, who is an expert in classic literature, flew down for it. His latest project, The Penguin Classics Book, is a reader’s companion to Penguin classics, with entries on every book and author. Talking about the response to the festival, Henry told us, “So far, I have visited three of the five book stores, and each one has done extraordinary things. Seeing all the classics in one place has been spectacular — it’s a rare sight and a really inspiring tribute to the longevity of the series.”
This is the first Penguin Classics Festival, and each store has committed to stock the entire range of Penguin Classics, Penguin Modern Classics, Puffin Classics, Vintage Classics, etc.
Talking about the importance of keeping these classics alive, Henry added, “The term ‘classics’ can be a double-edged sword: on one hand it is a mark of quality and status, on the other it can have associations of dusty, old-fashioned, difficult books that you had to struggle through at school. I’m delighted that the festival is demonstrating that these books are not dull — they are the radical, emotional, strange, brilliant books that broke away from the traditions of their times to create something new and spectacular — that is why they have survived, and why they are still wonderful to read today,” says Eliot, who says some of his favourite classics are Alice in Wonderland, A Room with a View and Gulliver’s Travels.
Mayi Gowda, the owner at Blossoms, said that this kind of festival benefits the publisher and stores as well, especially considering how the habit of reading has been slowly fading over the years. “Classics have always been close to our hearts. Penguin was the publisher that introduced the classics 75 years back. In fact, the first book we sold at the start of our business 25 years back was a Penguin Classic. Though every month we put out 100s of new releases, the classics still have a special connect with every reader,” said Mayi, adding that each customer is picking up as many as 10-15 books a day since the festival kicked off.
The festival is on till December 1.