Once, the great cellist Pablo Casals was asked if he could imagine his life listening only to Bach. "No, I cannot imagine my life with only Bach," he replied. "However, I cannot imagine my life without Bach." This is the spirit embodied by the books in the series you hold in your hands: that no matter how much we wander as readers, there is a vital, primordial source from which we will never cease to draw pleasure. And this source is the classic – in this case, classical literature, the great classic authors. Can the classic be sexy, to use the current phraseology? Of course it can! But what does "classic" mean – and what does "sexy" also mean? Well, the classic symbolizes the eternal within us. The classic is home, it is a nest, it is the hearth to which we always return. It is both a starting point and a destination.

However, the classic is not a museum piece, it is not a mausoleum; on the contrary, it is living, flowing matter, a spiritual vitamin, an elixir of life. That is why it is also sexy. Meaning? The endlessly provocative, the oblique, the atmospheric, the fluid and pulsating, whisper and scream together, foaming wave and serene sea at the same time. The series THE CLASSICS, with new, contemporary translations, informative introductory notes, and selected afterwords, aims to highlight reading as an art of pleasure. Because the classic is both a challenge and an intrigue.