The Worst Classics You Have Ever Read

[sinskeep]

Okay, well classics that I haven't enjoyed...

1. The Sun Also Rises
2. Anna Karenina (Part 4 killed me!)
3. Farenheit 451
4. Brave New World
5. Moby Dick

I couldn't stand Kate Chopin's The Awakening. I did manage to finish the book (thankfully it's short), and I can most certainly understand and appreciate the value that many see in it, but it just didn't connect to me.

.

Definately agree with that one it was kind of pointless...

[Patrick_Bateman]

Dickens


that is all

okay, well classics that i haven't enjoyed...

3. Farenheit 451

whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

[spookymulder93]

Okay, well classics that I haven't enjoyed...

1. The Sun Also Rises
2. Anna Karenina (Part 4 killed me!)
3. Farenheit 451
4. Brave New World
5. Moby Dick

I can't believe you don't like those 2. F451 is definitely either my favorite or second favorite novel. I have to read Animal Farm again to make my decision though.

As far as worst classic I don't know. I haven't read that many classic, but I did stop reading Frankenstein because it got too boring.

[Darcy101]

Catcher in the rye (oh Please)

Far from the madding crowd (just dont care)

[WildWildEast]

Charles Dicken's Great Expectations. It is one of the worst books ever and I just don't see why it is on list of the 100 books you need to read before you die.

[mal4mac]

Charles Dicken's Great Expectations. It is one of the worst books ever and I just don't see why it is on list of the 100 books you need to read before you die.

I think most Dickens novels are amongst the best books ever, definitely including Great Expectations. He usually (rightly!) get several entries in top 100 lists, from "before you die" lists to lists produced by serious critics. I'll be re-reading his major novels several times before i die, that's for sure!

[victorianfan]

As far as worst classic I don't know. I haven't read that many classic, but I did stop reading Frankenstein because it got too boring.

Frankenstein is a true horror! It gave me a splitting headache.

Charles Dicken's Great Expectations. It is one of the worst books ever and I just don't see why it is on list of the 100 books you need to read before you die.

Based on what criteria, please?

[DonovanTalbot]

Frankenstein is a true horror! It gave me a splitting headache.

Frankenstein not that bad, it is just Victor Frankenstein's inner dialogues are abit too wet and melodramatic combined with the Romantic prose Mary Shelley uses. I remember hating Frankenstein the first time around, I despised it, but then cruising through it the second time around without the least bit difficulty and a great deal more of enjoyment.

I found it difficult to appreciate Dracula and Dangerous Liaisons, the middle of Dracula seems to just go on without anything happening.

And it's not just because they're epistolary novels, I loved Frankenstein.

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).

Dracula ranks as one of my current favorite classics. Might well be my favorite book. I loved every word of it. Full of chilling atmosphere and unforgettable imagery. Tho, the middle parts does mildly drag as Dracula himself appears to fall off the pages and is rather spoken of in the third person but the antics of Renfield alleviate the absence of the grand bloodsucking archfiend.

[stlukesguild]

Charles Dicken's Great Expectations. It is one of the worst books ever and I just don't see why it is on list of the 100 books you need to read before you die.

Based on what criteria, please?

I wondered as much.

[dafydd manton]

Isn't choice wonderfully arbitary! Let's face it, if we all liked the same thing, we'd all be up to our eyeballs in Mills and Boon, or Harry Potter.

[WildWildEast]

Based on what criteria, please?

It is a personal opinion I guess. Honsetly, I found the element of coincidence in this novel ruining the plot.

as for the list of the 100-books-you-need-to-read-before-you-die, it is like any other list that includes the best 100 books ever. And Great Expectations's Charles Dickens.

[grechzoo]

rabbit run

couldn't get through it. just didn't get on with updikes ideas.

[blazeofglory]

The worst classic I have started off never to complete and never to satisfy myself reading is Ulysses. I have began to read the book with the intent that this is always a number one and textually it could be the à la mode but I shrank back after going through some pages. I found some of the epical poems of Milton, Pope and even Shakespeare unappealing. I like War and Peace somewhat more than any fiction of Sartre for after a careful study we will be in tune with the book.
Let the book be an appetizer and let it thrill and engage and at the same time instruct us. Siddhartha for instance is a book that I find philosophical and fictionally moving. So is the Brothers Karamazov. The book that always propels my imaginative faculties and inspire and transform me all the time is the Prophet by Gibran. Kafka is at times a hard read yet it is not as intricate as James Joyce and I like the Trial despite the fact that at the outset I found the book rather tortuous

[kelby_lake]

The Trial takes some getting used to; The Metamorphosis is a better place to start.

I don't really think the point of reading classics is to try and judge their right to be a classic- after surviving so long, it's kind of a given. I think it's quite sad that people can't find anything at all to appreciate in a novel- even in To Kill A Mockingbird, I appreciate that its message and style may resonate more with younger/other readers (if you want examples of prejudice and racism, read the newspapers) and that it might be a simple introduction into more 'worthy' books.

[Three Sparrows]

I can't say I enjoyed The Good Soldier, too much "This is the saddest story I have ever heard...".