What do you think of classics?

<--------- Future classic analyst

I'm in love with the Classics. I think they're beautiful in a way that they don't tackle much about what people like and what people enjoy, they had limited their goals of giving a most enjoyable story to readers. I think that they don't aim to appeal, rather, they aim to explore the society, its cruelties and lightness, by rolling out stories about simple situations in near realistic manner.

I do want to collect as many as I can, and of course, read them all. One of my teachers, too, read classics, and there are times when we share our understandings and musings with each other. Maybe it's because of him that I was inspired to analyze classics carefully, too?

My favorite classic would be many, but no one could beat the place of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in my heart. Never had I seen such work that is so straightforward I forgot analyzing such factors and just continued reading. I'm also in love with The Scarlet Letter and The Picture of Dorian Gray, both of which are tragic romances.

Certain classics, I love. But others nearly make me want to cut my eyes out. We read Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury in my Literary Criticism class last semester. It wasn't a horrible book but I definitely didn't enjoy it which made reading and discussing it for nearly 4 months pretty miserable. Which is also why I'm really glad this semester I'm taking a class on Harry Potter.

But some works of literature, though they've surely something to teach us and they've contributed to the furthering of literature as a whole, simply aren't relevant, especially as leisurely reads, this day in age.

The thing I find about Classics is I never regret reading them, but it usually takes me until the end of the book to realize that I did actually like them. That's how I was with Pride and Prejudice, Return of the Native, Dracula etc... So for that reason I want to read as many of them as I can, because I have no idea which ones are going to inspire me or I'm going to end up loving.

My favorite works are by far Shakespeare, but I prefer seeing the plays or acting it to just straight reading it any day. Favorites there are King Lear, Hamlet, Richard the Second, and Troilus and Cressida(the last two because I was in them). Shakespeare has some of the most beautiful language and some of the most significant messages about humanity, in my opinion.

How dare you force me to choose between an honest answer and a Pokemon reference! 0:<

I've only read a few classics. And I don't really like Shakespeare which is a shame because you read him so much in English. But I really liked Jane Eyre and Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

I'd like to read as much classics as possible for the stories. It's just that Old(er) English doesn't appeal to me at all.

What qualifies a book to be categorized as "classic"? Anywho, my favorite classic, honestly the only classic I've ever read, is A Tale of Two Cities. I'm going to try to read Les Miserables this year, but the number of pages is intimidating.

As a future English teacher, this poll depresses me.

I used to despise the classics, only ever really amounting some kind of enjoyment when reading Coleridge or Conan-Doyle.

However after taking up Literature at sixth form and now University, I'm in love with them. There's so much in them that reading it is so thrilling; you're always getting so much out of them. The only one I didn't like so far was The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by L. Sterne.

Also, as a lot of you already know, I don't like Shakespeare.

I didn't understand the concept of 'classics' to begin with- family isn't big on reading- but I knew I preferred old books to new ones as they seemed better written. Then I got to high school (7th to 11th grade) and I was hooked on literature XD

I love reading= I love well written works= I LOVE CLASSICS.

For me, it depends on the classic. I love Les Miserables, Wuthering Heights, and Phantom of the Opera, but I can't stand any of Jane Austen's books.

Does 'Sula' count as a classic? That book was great.

The ones I've read have really interested me, excluding Romeo and Juliet, so while that's not an experience I would want to repeat, I loved Pride and Prejudice, and Oliver Twist, and even liked a few other Shakespeare plays. So, yes, I'm afraid I'll just read the ones that interest me

I love the classics. Contrary to the minimum amount of authors with beauty we have now, there used to be heaps then. Then, people who could actually write, wrote. Reading the classics - or even the modern classics like Breakfast at Tiffany's and To Kill A Mockingbird - make you feel like the life you live now is a farce, where everyone is a writer, everyone is a musician, everyone is a photographer, and everyone has a lot of wit to throw to the public through... um, Facebook.