One of my Latin teachers taught that a 'classic is that which has pleased many for a long time over different periods.' Words to that effect.
So to some, maybe the Aeneid was in fact 'popular fiction.' Then it grew whiskers and by passage of some undefined time became a true classic. Almost ninety years have passed since the magnificent prose segments of Tom Joad and Preacher Casy in "The Grapes of Wrath." After a while I think it's hard to distinguish between "popular fiction" and a classic.
Perhaps look at "The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin," or "Moby Dick" or so many of the other great books mentioned above.
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