The Worst Classics You Have Ever Read

I can name some classics that I had to read with anger (some books I read because I'm stubborn):

- I'm sorry Virgil, but "Aeneid" is a very, very dry book... nothing to do with Homer's works (I just loved The Iliad and the Odyssey!)... this is a really boring book to read...

-"Thus Spoke Zarathustra", by Nietzsche. This was a hard book to read, though I like philosophy a lot.

- "Emma", since I'm not an Austen lover and I just can´t stand those kind of stories. :P

- "The Great Gatsby", maybe because I was too young when I read it, but the story didn't move me at all.


Strangely, books like "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", "Heart of Darkness", "Drakula", "Moby Dick", "100 Years of Solitude" (some of the most hated book mentioned) are some of my favourite.

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Originally Posted by Psychosis

- I'm sorry Virgil, but "Aeneid" is a very, very dry book... nothing to do with Homer's works (I just loved The Iliad and the Odyssey!)... this is a really boring book to read...

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I love Aeneid in fact I thought the Odyssey,which I read a few years back, really dry and Virgil much better.

On the whole I don't think I have ever hated a book. Wondered who on earth would think it was well written, let alone great literature definitely but hated no.

I love Wuthering Heights!!!
I couldn't get through War and Peace Tolstoy...

The Catcher In The Rye. And as for The Great Gatsby, I also feel I'm missing something.

I hated Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. It is so boring compared to the others. And Catherine Morland is so naive, it really gets onto your nerves.
I really love Jane AUsten's style and her wit, but this novel was just way too benign.

I also had to plough through Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks, a German classic.

First and foremost, The Fountainhead. I don't know which is worse: that Ayn Rand decided to write a book about architects or that I actually read the whole thing.

As I Lay Dying.

I love The Great Gatsby, although I understand why some don't like it. It's not very jolly.

To Kill A Mockingbird is rubbish. If someone published that now, I doubt anyone would care.

The Old man and The Sea. I can't get into it. Apparantly it's one of the most profound stories ever told which is the only thing my blurb said and somehow I can't see it yet

As I Lay Dying

Kafka... I'm surprised at this one. But then there's no accounting for taste:D. Seriously, I could never stand Steven Crane's Red Badge of Courage. Especially after being forced to read it by three different teachers who wanted to turn the experience into some grand social lesson.:sick:

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Originally Posted by stlukesguild

As I Lay Dying

Kafka... I'm surprised at this one. But then there's no accounting for taste:D. Seriously, I could never stand Steven Crane's Red Badge of Courage. Especially after being forced to read it by three different teachers who wanted to turn the experience into some grand social lesson.:sick:

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I think I should re-read it and read some more by the same author and read it all with an open mind. I want to like Faulkner, honest!

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Originally Posted by moranfan

First and foremost, The Fountainhead. I don't know which is worse: that Ayn Rand decided to write a book about architects or that I actually read the whole thing.

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I heartily agree. I despise Ayn Rand.

I really hated Madame Bovary.

It was too dry & full of unnecessary details, the end was so disappointing. ahhh!!! it simply bores you to death :lol:, I don't know how I managed to read it all.

Tess of the d'Urbervilles made me want to slit my throat.

I read some of Hemingway's works in my early 20's and got nothing out of them. I remember being bored to pieces. I thought he was completely overrated and that his writing was bereft of beauty. But maybe now I'd be more in tune with him - not sure. Maybe I should give him another try, as I did Steinbeck (hated him in high school - love him now).

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Originally Posted by Adolescent09

Have you found any classics that were simply unappealing yet according to to the general public considered some of the most outstanding literary works ever? List classics you have read that have disinterested you and made you slog through several pages of pure banality.


3. A Streetcar Named Desire

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You clearly haven't watched the film.

Fountainhead, yes. Boring.