Is there such a thing as a classic?

所谓的“经典”真的存在吗？

A new book argues that the “timeless classic” is a critical creation

某新著认为，“经典永流传”是评论家创造的概念

After Taylor Swift, the “Mona Lisa” is probably the most recognisable female face in the world. Every day around 20,000 people gape at Leonardo da Vinci’s painting in the Louvre.

除了泰勒·斯威夫特以外，全球最具辨识度的女性面孔或许就是蒙娜丽莎了。每天，约有两万人来到卢浮宫，驻足欣赏达芬奇的画作《蒙娜丽莎》。

Yet it became famous not because of a beguiling semi-smile, but a thief.

然而这幅画作闻名于世，并非因为蒙娜丽莎那迷人的似笑非笑，而是由于一起盗窃案。

Until a worker stole the masterpiece in 1911, it was still mostly unknown; viewers flooded in to see what a French newspaper called “an enormous, horrific, gaping void”.

起初，这幅画作一直默默无闻，直到1911年被一名工人偷走后，它才开始名声大噪。参观者们蜂拥而至，只为一睹法国媒体所描述的“巨大、恐怖、令人惊愕的空白”。（译者注：这里指的是《蒙娜丽莎》失窃后在卢浮宫墙上留下的空白。）

Classics of art, literature and music are supposed to carry some mysterious appeal that endures across the ages.

人们认为美术、文学和音乐领域的经典作品一定具有某种神秘的吸引力，经久不衰。

But, as Rochelle Gurstein, a historian, writes in a new book, the “timeless classic” is anything but. “What I believed was written in stone was actually written in water,” she argues. Classics come and go.

但正如历史学家罗谢尔·古尔斯坦（Rochelle Gurstein）在其新书（译者注：指的是 The Repeal of Reticence: A New Look at the Classical Canon，《摒弃缄默：重新审视古典经典》）中所写，世上绝不存在“永恒的经典”。她说道，“我原以为的不朽，其实都如流水般易逝，”在时间的长河里，经典之作来去更迭。

Take other celebrated works of art that, along with the “Mona Lisa”, define the European canon.