The Worst Classics You Have Ever Read

[meh!]

Hello Aunty-lion and thank you for replying to this topic with warm appreciation. I find it interesting that you say your mother found interest in Catch-22 after it was read to her.. I have experienced certain books boring when read softly but far more interesting when read aloud but as for Joseph Heller's Catch-22 I believe believe my main grudge against it is the in the way he seems to convolude paragraphs with details upon details which seems to be arbitrarily sloshed together... Take this paragraph for example:



...Now I'm not claiming that this paragraph isn't amusing but can it seriously be called brilliant? I respect your opinion on the book and everyone else who is a die-hard fan of it and Joseph Heller's other works but I am baffled that a few people have claimed it is "the greatest classic of all time" while others have compared its humor to certain Shakespear plays.

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I'm sorry I can't give you an opinion on Vanity Fair because I haven't read it myself. I'll try to get to William Thackeray after I overcome this mound of Joyce/Dostoevsky.

Why on earth would anyone compare Catch-22's humour to Shakespeare?

Catch-22 is funny

On topic:

Never really got on with Thomas Hardy.

Jude the obscure... just...

I can't really communicate how much I don't care about how exactly the grass on the riverbank was being blown...

[kelby_lake]

A lot of my friends recommended Vanity Fair to me, but I gave up after the first 60 pages or so because all the characters just seemed so vacant and uninteresting. I suppose that's probably the point. Does anyone have an opinion about this?? Does it get better? Should I try again?

Vanity Fair is genius. It's 900 pages, but well worth reading.

It's a 'Novel without A Hero'- Becky Sharp is a social climber, Amelia is soppy, George Osborne is selfish, Dobbin is stupidly selfless...just like real people:

'Ah! Vanitas vanitatum! Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?—Come, children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out.'

[Stargazer86]

I didn't like Pride and Prejudice. I wouldn't say it was the "worst". It just didn't appeal to my taste at all and I didn't enjoy it personally.

[Page Turner]

The Sound and the Fury. I tried, I really did, but I couldn't get through it.

[mayneverhave]

The Sound and the Fury. I tried, I really did, but I couldn't get through it.

Difficulty is not an aesthetic quality.

[Page Turner]

Difficulty is not an aesthetic quality.

That's true. I've read other books that took a couple of readings to sink in but this one didn't work for me. I haven't read any other Faulkner. Can you recommend an easier intro?

[mayneverhave]

That's true. I've read other books that took a couple of readings to sink in but this one didn't work for me. I haven't read any other Faulkner. Can you recommend an easier intro?

The Sound and the Fury was the one I actually started with, but since this option is out, I would suggest either As I Lay Dying, Light in August, or some of his short stories - definitely not Absalom, Absalom!

As I Lay Dying is, I would say, just as difficult as The Sound and the Fury, only its chapters are far shorter, its overall length shorter, and these two qualities make the reading relatively easier and more enjoyable. Either way, I suggest using Sparknotes, books from the library, or maybe The Sound and the Fury hypertext that is available free online to approach the books.

[Scott89119]

For me personally, Dracula got to be a complete bore after awhile (I read it when I was very young, so maybe my perspective has changed enough for me to be entertained by it). Another classic that was a chore to finish was The Hunchback of Notre Dame- a very fine novel, but unflinchingly, pervasively tragic near the end.

[Dostoyevsky]

The Bible, no contest

[Psynema]

I never quite read any classics that I hated...but some commentary none the less

1. Great Gatsby - read it in High School, the teacher just said "its' about the recklessness of the 20s". Pretty much that was it and I couldn't really gather much more out of it - sure there's materialism/greed/lust issues, but didn't find it to be really original or thought provoking and couldn't empathise with it at all.

2. Brothers Karamazov - still a good book, but didn't find it as great as others mentioned. Non religious folk won't find as much as christians and it just doesn't feel like Dostoevsky's other works.

3. Sirens of Titan - call me dumb, I get the main idea, but nothing resonated with me - someone tell me what I missed and feel free to argue, but just seemed like a cartoon of a very tired issue beaten do death ten million times. Didn't find it original and at times felt like I was reading a children's book.

[higley]

2. Brothers Karamazov - still a good book, but didn't find it as great as others mentioned. Non religious folk won't find as much as christians and it just doesn't feel like Dostoevsky's other works.

Kind of funny considering the comment before yours.

[billl]

It's been a while, maybe I've matured or something and would have a different opinion now, but a collection of Guy de Maupassant's short stories (maybe the best short story writer ever!) and a collection of Montaigne's essays (near the top in the genre!) both really disappointed me. Maybe there was too much hype. One thing's for sure, I didn't get anywhere close to reading them all so... maybe not fair.

[Tupelo]

Moby Dick!

<shudder>

[alexar]

"Now small fowls flew screaming over the yet yawning gulf; a sullen white surf beat against its steep sides; then all collapsed, and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago."

Nah it ain't that bad.

Middlemarch!

Narrators do NOT know best.

[kelby_lake]

I never quite read any classics that I hated...but some commentary none the less

1. Great Gatsby - read it in High School, the teacher just said "its' about the recklessness of the 20s". Pretty much that was it and I couldn't really gather much more out of it - sure there's materialism/greed/lust issues, but didn't find it to be really original or thought provoking and couldn't empathise with it at all.

Sounds like you got a bad teacher because there's loads in Gatsby and it's certainly original. People just assume it isn't because they're used to reading loads of modern rip-offs.

It's a tragedy about the destructive power of dreams, and the death of dreams. There isn't anyone in the world who can't empathise with wishing they could recreate some lost moment of their past, or love something in vain.