How popular were "classic" novels in their time?
By AmberPanther
That Norway government buying books thing got me thinking, and I’m kind of curious what people think about it. It feels like a lot of what we call “classics” now weren’t super popular when they first came out. That made me wonder about stuff that’s big right now—like ASOIAF or 50 Shades of Grey—would it just fade away later, or stick around because it’s so popular? Also, what books were actually huge at the time they were written, and which ones do we still act like are great literature but didn’t really make much money when they came out?