The semantic center of the book by the famous cultural sociologist Boris Dubin is the idea of classics, its role in the formation of literature as one of the important institutions of modern society. Both the mechanisms for maintaining the authority of the classics in literary criticism, criticism, teaching, book publishing, awarding prizes, etc., and the fight against it, including through the promotion of the avant-garde and the formation of mass literature, are considered. The articles included in the book show the transformation of the idea of the classics in the past and today, and discuss approaches to their professional analysis using the methods of sociology of culture.