WE HAVE BECOME SO USED to the idea of “classic books” that it is easy to forget that there was a time when there weren't any. The great writers of antiquity have been “classics” in Europe since the Renaissance, but Latin and Greek were not available to everyone. So when the young Brontës, for instance, were educating themselves in that Yorkshire parsonage, they had to construct their own canon. There was Sir Walter Scott (they adored him). There was Jane Austen (Charlotte thought her insipid). But then they had to make do with the Christmas annuals of the 1820s with titles such as Friendship's Offering or The Keepsake. No wonder they created their own “classic books”, transcribing tales from their imaginary worlds of Angria and Gondal into the minute manuscript volumes now in the British Library.

Today we have heaps of choice and plenty of publishers telling us what we should be reading. As the Oxford World's Classics series is relaunched this month, its rivals include Penguin and Vintage, as well as enterprises from smaller presses such as Everyman, Wordsworth and Oneworld.

The present “classics” industry dates back at least to 1906, when Joseph Dent hit on the idea of publishing 1,000 titles by the “best authors” at the (relatively) cheap price of one shilling. This was the Everyman Library. At the beginning of the 20th century there were many new “common readers” as a result of the Elementary Education Act passed in the 1870, and they wanted to own their books. Add to that the establishment of English Literature as a subject in the universities and you had the magic equation - readers wanting books, professors wanting to pontificate on what to read, and booksellers wanting to sell.

This last has never changed, and that's why Oxford University Press decided that it was time to repackage its paperback series. Judith Luna - senior commissioning editor at OUP - explains that it is now ten years since Oxford World's Classics were last relaunched: “It was a general editing and marketing issue. After a few years a brand does tend to become invisible. So while the quality of the work is still there, readers tend not to notice, so the new look is designed to refresh the World's Classics label and encourage readers to choose this series.” The bold new covers are designed to be “more contemporary and enticing” because “the old World's Classics branding and style could seem more academic”.

Except of course that, on the inside, that is exactly what they are. When the present series of World's Classics got underway the original plan was to put the scholarly Clarendon editions from OUP into paperback. So a World's Classics text will still give you an erudite introduction, a carefully selected copy text - often with textual variants from manuscripts or other editions, a chronology, supporting material such as prefaces or after words, copious annotation of allusions and references, sometimes a glossary, and a full bibliography.

At Penguin they offer something similar. Adam Freudenheim is classics publisher: “What we try to do is to give great attention to every aspect of the production, the setting of the text, the clarity of the print, as well as thoughtful introductions and careful annotation.” But what about the reader who doesn't want all that stuff - the “apparatus” as it is called in the trade? Well then, you choose your colour says Freudenheim: “We're recognising that different readers want different things. Some people want just the text without the apparatus (Red), others are only interested in price (Green, selling at £2) yet others want the text and the notes and all the bells and whistles (Black).” For some titles there is even a fourth option from Puffin, the children's classics series, also recently relaunched.

Everyman and Wordsworth have long been in the “classics” arena, offering opinionated introductions and succinct annotations. A new player is Vintage, an imprint of Random House, originally founded in 1990 to put titles from their hardback imprints into paperback. Last year it launched Vintage Classics. You (mostly) don't get any extra material, but you do get a snazzy quote from some literary celebrity and you get the game of matching older texts with more contemporary titles in their “Vintage Twins” initiative, the brainchild of their MD Gail Rebuck. So Mary Shelley's Frankenstein goes with Jeanette Winterson's Sexing the Cherry under the heading “Monsters”.

Style is the essence at Vintage. Equally cool, the beautiful books from Oneworld Classics offer quality production values and an original approach to the text. Their publisher Alessandro Gallenzi (also founder of Hesperus Classics) promises new translations of Dante and Cavalcanti, Duras and Robbe-Grillet, and tells me that they are “having fun with lesser-known classics” such as Napoleon's Aphorisms and Robert Graves's Lars Porsena, or The Future of Swearing an Improper Language.

When I won a prize some years since for editing a classic, my girlfriend dubbed it the “Miss Brown Cardigan Award”. With editors such as Gallenzi on the case, she'll have to eat her words.

Margaret Reynolds will discuss the editing and publishing of classics on Radio 4, Monday April 14, 9am

Case study: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Oxford World's Classics
Jacket Clean and striking but she's too sulky.
Introduction By Oxford prof Sally Shuttleworth. Covers all bases and is excellent on the ending.
Text Based on first edition of 1847. Actual print a bit small.
Extra material Plenty on the text and publication of the novel.
Price £5.99. Good value.

Penguin Classics (Black)
Jacket A painting by Millais. Jane would never have worn this dress.
Introduction By novelist and critic Stevie Davies. Very good on the political context.
Text Revised edition of 1848, with some emendations. Clear print.
Extra material Chronology, notes and “Opinions of the Press”.
Price £5.99.

Oneworld Classics
Jacket Stylishly modern, haunting and suggestive. Introduction No, but see below.
Text Based on first edition, modernised and standardised.
Extra material Fantastic images of Charlotte and the places she knew.
Useful historical notes.
Price £6.99 - but a beautiful and original book.

Vintage Classics
Jacket Clever, intriguing and spot on for the story.
Introduction No.
Text Based on the revised edition of 1848. Nice print.
Extra material Little life of Charlotte. Quote from Sarah Waters: "One of the most perfectly structured novels of all time". Meaning?
Price £5.99. Hmm.

Wordsworth Classics
Jacket Naff nineteenth century gouache. Makes it look like Georgette Heyer.
Introduction By Sally Minogue of Canterbury Christ Church University College. Sensible and helpful - especially good summary of critical perspectives.
Text No note on text, but looks like revised third edition of 1848. Print clear enough but small.
Extra material Very brief notes on allusions.
Price £1.99 – strapped-for-cash student special.

Explore Books

• Book Extracts

• Book Reviews

• Books Group

Times Recommends

• The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway
• Burning is too good for them
• Strange Fruit: Why Both Sides Are Wrong in the Race Debate by Kenan Malik