classic: yes, good: no
22 posts in this topic.
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So let's hear it! All the "classics" you've read that turned out to be poorly-written, verbose/thick (a common one), or just plain crappy. My most hated classic is Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame. What story there is is really enjoyable, but it's also all-but-impossible to find underneath mounds and mounds of superfluous description! I mean, really, who needs a chapter about a bird's-eye view of Paris?
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I wouldn't know for sure, but I'm big on translation. Hugo might be better in French. Or it might be just as bad, and harder to understand.
I hate The Good Earth. Underline and all. With most things, even if I dislike them at first, I start to like them. James Fenimore Cooper, for example. I couldn't stand his Deerslayer excerpts that we read in lit class, I hated the whole idea of Indians and this weird pioneer guy. But as we started pealing away the layers and seeing the meaning, I started to like it a bit more. But, The Good Earth is so horrendously bad that nothing could save it. How could she get away with writing a book that had no conflict? -_- ew. -
I hate (a) Moby Dick and (b) the Odyssey. I can see why both books are considered classics, and I can appreciate the stuff behind the words, but the words themselves are something that I never want to relive in all my days.
A few extra points on Moby Dick:
- a five page preface including every quote that might have ever existed on whales, the nature of whales, the use of whales in society, etc.
- a whole chapter on the biology of whales and their relation to other animals and sea-dwellers
- sentences that begin on one page and end twenty pages later
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I hate (a) Moby Dick
Have you read Bartleby, The Scrivener by Melville? That was amazing. I read it in my Lit class, and I asked my teacher if other things Melville wrote were like that, and he said no. He said Moby Dick is a great book, but that he digresses so often, it would be better just to read excerpts. He went on to say that some classes studied this book, but he sees no point in reading the whole thing when we can read excerpts and understand Melville all the same.
Personally, Bartleby, The Scrivener was one of my favorite short stories. It was so tragic, so human, and the messages behind it were wonderful. I don't know Melville, but I think you should read that. ^_^ It's short-ish, and oh so good. "Ah, Barleby! Ah, humanity!" Such a cry... -
Bartleby is an amazing short story. I love it. Moby Dick is nothing like that. Which is probably why I dislike it so much.
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I can't stand Moby Dick, either. I also really don't like The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne, Everyman, and The Mali Epic of Son-Jara.
I do love Bartleby.
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Ew. Good Earth and Hunchback. Just ew. Actually, if I have a copy of my critique of Hunchback, I may post it ^^ it's from seventh grade, but it still makes me laugh. But boy, did i have fun tearing it apart!
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Brave New World. Well-written, I grant you, but just yuuuuuuck. I literally wanted to take a bath afterwards. Hated it, but still glad to have read it...does that make any sense?
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Despite loving a lot of Jane Austen, I hated Emma, and I couldn't even finish Lady Susan.
I read a little bit of A Christmas Carol I couldn't stand it, and my friend says Lord of the Flies is terrible, but others have said otherwise and I haven't read it for myself.
My mum speaks badly of a lot, but the only one that I can recall her complaining about is Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton.
I'll most more as I remember. -
i know it's a bit new to be considered a classic but i hated HATED hatchet by Gary Paulsen, but that was three years ago before I had read anything other than harry potter or holes. by the way if you want to get a kid to start reading hand them holes. awesome book
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I've never liked Dickens much...A Tale of Two Cities comes to mind. I did like the story, but I hate his writing style with a passion.
Like Suzie, I hated The Good Earth as well. I always thought something exciting was going to happen. Then I got to the last page. And I felt like I'd wasted a few hours of my life. -
I didn't like the Age of Innocence, or Master Skylark which I had to read for school!
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Pride and Prejudice is the only Jane Austen book I've read, and I don't like the first third of it. I also hate the Lord of the Flies (I was laughing and was so glad that Piggy died cuz he's so annoying. Sucks to his asmar, amen!) But that doesn't mean I don't appreciate these works as literature. I understand why these books are classics because of their message and how influential those books are, even though they weren't fun reads.
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The Mysteries Of Udolpho -- Ann Radcliffe. The book was so heavy my arms used to hurt just reading it, I've tried again by borrowing it last week--let's hope I can finish the first few chapters this time.
And a whole list of Charles Dickens... -
The Lord of the Flies.
Horrible book! I started and finsihed it, and didn't enjoy a single word. I absolutely loathed it!
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