The Most Overrated Classics

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Lincolnshirelass
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Re: The Most Overrated Classics

Post by Lincolnshirelass »

I think maybe the thing to remember about 'Romeo and Juliet' (which, incidentally, isn't my own favourite Shakespeare play) is that despite the love affair and some very lyrical language, it essentially ISN'T a love story, but one about family rivalries and what happens to young people caught up in them. I want to put in a mention for Gottfried Keller's 'A Village Romeo and Juliet' - originally in German, but it's been translated. It's a very moving modern (well not so modern now!) take on it - and considerably shorter!
An Eye for an Eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

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Post by Amystl26 »

I read To Kill a Mockingbird a few years back, and wanted to poke my eyes out with safety pins. I found it incredible painful to get through. I have respect for all writers' work, but this was just not my cup of java!
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Post by Amystl26 »

Brandi Noelle wrote: 17 Oct 2017, 13:35 Classics are a tricky thing because the word "classic" would have you believe they are amazing books that transcend the test of time. However, in my opinion, many of the classics are merely old books that we have to suffer through to seem like literary intellectuals. Here is my contribution to the overrated list (& by overrated, I mean, truly awful/boring/dreary books we were forced to read in high school):

Overrated:
"A Tale of Two Cities" - Charles Dickens
"The Scarlet Letter" - Nathaniel Hawthorne
"Anthem" - Ayn Rand (anything by Ayn Rand, really)
"Grapes of Wrath" - John Steinbeck

"To Kill A Mockingbird" was not my taste, but I do think it's a good story and well-written. I wouldn't consider this overrated, just not my favorite.

Classics I recommend:
"A Farewell to Arms" - Ernest Hemingway
"The Great Gatsby" - F. Scott Fitzgerald
"Gone With the Wind" - Margaret Mitchell
"Little Women" - Louisa May Alcott
anything by Mark Twain
anything by Jane Austen
Shakespeare
I have Jane Austen waiting for me on my bookshelf for 2018! Somehow I havr yet to read any novels from her. Gone with the Wind is one of my literary "comfort foods" that I reread every Christmas.
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Post by Stephaniexperez1991 »

For me the classic i find most overrated is Treasure Island. Between having to stop every other sentence to look up what a word means and the 3 page long descriptions of one scene i felt like I was running a 4k trying to get through it. You're thrown so often by the heavy verbiage it's hard to just enjoy the ride.
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Post by Bush baby »

War and peace :doh: :(
What a horrible horrible torture of a book. I do not understand one iota how people can say they have read it all from front to back and loved every waking moment of reading it and couldn't put it down.
:techie-studyingbrown: I do not know what category to put books that I read into. Wether to everyone else they would be deemed as classics? Books from all eras pre 1940. Wether they are deemed books of antiquity or "classics" doesn't matter, so long as I love the content.
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Post by EWatson02 »

I remember reading Catcher in the Rye, and while I think I liked it well enough as a ninth grader, the more I thought about it as I got older, the more I realized that I knew people like Holden Caulfield, and that they're deeply unpleasant to be around. Which I suppose is part of the point of the book, but come on, young dudes...your ennui is nothing special!

I deeply disliked Jane Eyre when I read it the first time, but it's been a few years and I kind of want to read it again just to see how my opinion has changed. I remember watching it as a play and enjoying it, so perhaps it has? I do know that most of my friends have a deep hatred for Mr. Rochester.

Another one I just couldn't handle was Huck Finn. I've had it read to me as a kid by my parents, and read it myself for a report in school and for the life of me I can't remember a single solitary thing about it. I would read and reread sentences several times in a row, and by the time I reached the end of the page I still didn't know what I'd just read.

I do love me some Sherlock Holmes, though.
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Post by Pollu25 »

I have not read all of them but, among the ones I have I think 'catcher in the rye' and Huck Finn are overrated. Could not get to finish them. I guess it is mostly because of the language used and grammar.
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Post by onyxaaliyah »

Hamlet is one that has a good general idea, but was hard to read through and stay focused. I actually found that it wasuch more entertaining in the story's retelling where the main character was a third party, for example: "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein. It still tells the story, but from the eyes of a woman, which is simply better.
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Post by Tbunde5 »

As a teacher and lit major I agree that schools have ruined the classics for people. Instead of enjoying the beauty of Shakespeare’s sonnets we were forced to write in iambic pentameter. And writing a historical treatise on the political overtones of Dickens almost killed my brain. But reading-really reading- the classics is about letting the words flow over and through you, feeling the themes like music in your soul. Not everyone can enjoy the poetry of Shakespeare or the dialectal style of Twain. But it isn’t about picking apart the grammar or style. It’s about the monumental change that happens within you when you are drawn into the story and it becomes part of you

This summer I finally read “Les Miserables” cover to cover. I have seen the broadway play and theater version of it countless times and figured I should. And I was amazed at the way the feelings and emotions of Hugo’s characters was translated on stage with nothing more than music. That’s what the true classics are-music in the written page. And even though Hugo goes on countless politica tangents that made me re-read my history books, the overwhelming story is what moved me.

And I loved Hamlet. Even taught his soliloquy to my 5th graders. As poetry and beauty and struggle (not as an assignment). And nothing was better than hearing them discuss “whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or by opposing, end them.”
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Post by Haute_Coffee »

Moby Dick. NO ONE needs that much technical info on whale hunting. They just don’t.

I grew up in the town the book was written in and takes place in. So it was required reading in school.
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Post by Cswrawr »

I recently tried to force myself to read Catch 22 to keep up with a book club, I made it about half way before throwing in the towel.
I agree with Catcher in the Rye. If I'd read it as a teenager I'd probably have loved it. I'd add to that Little Women. Not reading it until I was in my 20's was a mistake as I was way past any appreciation of those girls problems (or their parents lectures).
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Post by Jefftn »

Glamdring wrote: 20 Sep 2017, 03:58 I may have some common titles with you, Reuben. Catcher in the Rye and David Copperfield, I couldn't finish those. I don't know if they are overrated or not but they bored me after one chap or two. In my opinion, the several first pages are the most important part of a book's reading. A good author writing a good book will not produce a clumsy or tasteless beginning. Of all the books that I have read so far, classic or modern, the nice ones have always started nice.

I adore Dumas and Maupassant too, or French classic literature in general.
I love reading James Michener but I always know I have to make myself read through page 100. At that point, and it is always at that point, I can no longer put it down.
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Post by Jefftn »

Reuben 92 wrote: 26 Aug 2017, 13:17 Have you ever been forced to read a book for school and were left wondering 'why are they making us read this???' Or have you ever stumbled across a classic that has left you reeling with just how good it was?

Classics, of course, are always classics for a reason, and I don't intend to claim that any of the below books should be otherwise. They are all, in their ways, important books that have brought pleasure to many.

Below is my (highly personal!) list of top 5 most OVER- and UNDER- rated literary classics that I've read to date. These are ones that left me either disappointed and underwhelmed, or excited and overwhelmed...

Let me know if you agree or disagree!


OVERRATED:

1. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. I didn't find this funny, except at rare moments, and I thought it was rambling, over-long and poorly structured.
2. Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. I can see its appeal to teens, with its rebellious undercurrent and angst-ridden anti-hero, but even as a teen I was unimpressed by Holden's repetitive dislikes and vernacular phrases.
3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. One of the most important books of the 20th C, without a doubt, but I found it hard to get through. I just didn't find the style exciting and I'm not a fan of courtroom scenes...
4. Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Having read any number of essays about it, and picking it apart scene by scene, I still found very little to celebrate. It didn't engage my imagination or emotions.
5. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. Another revered author who, I think, is set on too high a pedestal. Though I do enjoy much of Dickens' writing, this is one of my least favourite of his novels - far too sentimental for my taste!


UNDERRATED:

1. Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe. I enjoy Marlowe more than Shakespeare, heresy though that may be... A spine-tingling exploration of a classic legend, with enough ambiguity to keep you rereading for years.
2. The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope. My introduction to this author which sent me on a pilgrimage to read all 40+ of his novels. A gripping, complex plot; a warm, engaging style; a wealth of information on nineteenth-century life.
3. Perfume by Patrick Süskind. This book sucked me in so quickly and didn't let me go until the final page. Such a unique premise and such a unique treatment - a truly one-of-a-kind story.
4. The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy. A most beautiful, heart-wrenching exploration of nature and love. My personal favourite of Hardy's novels. Not for those who prefer a happy ending, but thankfully I don't...
5. A Little Life by Hanye Yanagihara. Can you qualify such a recent book as a classic? I suppose this is more like a prediction. It is rare for a contemporary book to effect me so deeply. A gut-wrenching, unputdownable story written in hypnotic prose. Again, not for the faint of heart but with a protagonist who will stay with you strongly for - well, at least a year!
Catch-22, loved it. Having spent 3 years in the Army I could identify with a lot of the “hurry up and wait” ideology. Also, although I never saw battle I could identify with someone who didn’t enter the military to kill anyone but found themselves having to decide whether to take a life or disobey orders, or even be killed by someone else who just wanted to get home also.

Catcher in the Rye. Could not finish.

To Kill a Mockingbird. No matter what the reason, to be wrongly accused by a corrupt or prejudice judicial system is scary.

The Underrated books must have been so underrated I never heard of them.
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Post by Jefftn »

I struggled with Thomas Hardy's "The Return of the Native" in school, but I recently bought a copy so I can give him another chance with the wisdom I have hopefully gained since school haha.

Reading your comment about school reminded me that my wife and I had to tell our daughter either she coul read Secret Garden or sit and listen why we took turns reading it to us. Fortunately she has become an avid reader and our granddaughter is also.
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Post by Jefftn »

Kat Berg wrote: 22 Oct 2017, 19:59 I could not even make it through Wuthering Heights or The Great Gatsby. Ugh. So dull! I think Persuasion is highly underrated! I love Pride and Prejudice, but it does not hold a candle to what I believe was Austen's greatest work.
Was that supposed to be blank? I personally loved Pride and Prejudice.
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