"Classic" Literature that you hated?

[Ekim Takusan]

For me? Lord Of The Flies. Small children, whose parents didn't care enough to raise them and just shipped them off to a boarding school, have the potential to be primitive evil murderous little sh*ts you say? As a long time glorified babysitter I have to wonder if anyone was surprised to find this out.

 

[RoyalSorceress]

I hated Huckleberry Finn...total waste of time.


to OP: oh poor Shakespeare. In defense of the author, "Venus and Adonis", "Much Ado about Nothing", and "Macbeth" were much better.

I hated that and Tom Sawyer.

I liked Much Ado about Nothing and Twelfth Night. I never saw how Romeo and Juliet was supposed to be this classic romance story.

 

[Neonbob]

Great Expectations.
What a horribly dry piece of shit that was. It felt like Dickens took a page to say what other writers would say in two sentences. And dear christ, I just could not make myself care about what was going on.

 

[Delsana]

Scarlet Letter

 

[Shimmyshake]

The Awakening

My god, I don't know if there has been a book that bored me as much as that one. That and I just plain hated the main character, never agreed with any of her decisions basically.

 

[Wing Dairu]

I never even FINISHED Moby Dick. Herman Melville just prattles on and on and on...you'll be reading, plot will be happening, and suddenly he'll devote thirty pages to describing IN DETAIL the New England fishing industry. GET BACK TO THE STORY!!!

 

[Yoshisummons]

Beowulf, I know it was written hundreds of years ago but for the love of god would it kill you to not print the damn thing in stanza. It's not a freakin poem.

It was passed down generations by bards that memorized it in stanza's. What you said made me think "Why should films in theaters be compressed into 20inch screens. They're not a freaking movie!"

 

[Death God]

Macbeth. I love Shakespeare but that book was SO boring!!!

 

[JaceArveduin]

Frankenstein as it happens. I've read 20k leagues under the sea and war of the worlds and found them enjoyable. Romeo and Juliet just seemed lame to me and I can't remember any others that really stuck out.

 

[asylumsweetie]

I despise Little Women. Uhg. Even thinking about it pisses me off. It's a bunch of stupid, naive girls just dying to throw themselves in to loveless marriages because society has convinced them that's the only way they have any value. Which would be an interesting premise if the author wasn't convinced this was completely true as well! And then at the end they kill off the only interesting, independent girl! And not even in a cool way! She gets fricken' pneumonia! UHG.

That, and the Crucible I hated beyond reason. Other than those two I'm a fan of classic literature. I thought the Great Gatsby and Moby Dick were wonderful. 20,000 Leauges Under the Sea is amazing too, but you have to skip over the damn lists of fish. Did know one edit that book or what? He literally stops the narrative for paragraphs to flat out list the fish outside the window. Its actually kind of bizarre. Journey to the center of the earth is another over rated one. I tried to read it once, and got halfway through. When I realized I was in the dead center of the book and they still hadn't even reached the stupid volcano, I gave it up for a loss.

A really great one too often over looked though, is the Time Machine by H.G. Wells. Amazing, amazing book.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

"Pride and Prejudice". I should have chosen "Wuthering Heights" damn it. Also, I hated "Catcher in the Rye". Holden is not deep. He does not have a moral message. He is a whiny 16 year old brat who needs his head smacked, and shown that he has no idea how the world actually works, and that it doesn't revolve around him.

 

[KarlMonster]

Well, lets see, I think I was supposed to read Old Man & the Sea, Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Anna Karenina, Of Human Bondage(?), MacBeth, R&J, the Scarlet Letter, and probably some other tripe that I can't remember now. Back then, I only read about half of each book, and I thought they were all pretty dry. I'd say they were dull, but I didn't really read them, so that would be a flawed assertion.

Now I think that Count Leo Tolstoy is a God. Damned. Genius. I've read Joseph Conrad of my own accord; 'Nostromo' is better than 'Heart of Darkness' and his other stories because there's no long tedious journey taking up nothing more than word count (OK there's a metaphorical journey, but that's better). Willie the Spear-shaker really shouldn't be read by anyone who doesn't understand the period language styles, e.g. the humor in 'Taming of the Shrew'.

 

[Gladiateher]

I have yet to encounter a piece of "classical literature" that I actually enjoyed. I would actually enjoy if someone could tell me how anything that any of these books could possibly be interesting or of use.

 

[draconiansundae]

I loathed Frankenstein. And Huckleberry Finn. I don't particularly care for Mark Twain in general.

Also, I hated "Catcher in the Rye". Holden is not deep. He does not have a moral message. He is a whiny 16 year old brat who needs his head smacked, and shown that he has no idea how the world actually works, and that it doesn't revolve around him.

Exactly this. I was so disappointed when I read The Catcher in the Rye.

Though I quite like Shakespeare, Fitzgerald, and Hawthorne. Melville, on the other hand I'm ambivalent towards. Moby Dick is so long, dry, and frustratingly boring, but I adore Billy Budd.

 

[Bromion]

Beowulf, I know it was written hundreds of years ago but for the love of god would it kill you to not print the damn thing in stanza. It's not a freakin poem.

actually it is, but the rhyme scheme was pretty much lost when they translated it from old English. that's why translating poems doesn't work very well.

The only classic book that I cannot stand is Ethan Frome, a very dry book about a very dry man who goes emo and tries to kill himself because he can't leave his wife for his cousin

 

[xXCrocmonXx]

"Brave New World" had me at its premise. I hated the shit out of that. It basically, after hearing a synopsis from the teacher, sounded like a schlop that bred learned-helplessness and basically reinforced that concept after it ended. I gave it a skim, and got the same feel.

Also, the interpretation that "The Great Gatsby" is about a liar and cheat instead of a self-made man coming to terms with his breaking expectations pissed me off too. "The Great Gatsby" was about a man who literally remade himself in a time where that was becoming a big deal. But, I was forced to hear from my teacher that it was about how wrong and horrible he was for being the man he really wanted to be, and that because he didn't get some dumb Betty he was a horrible person.

But then again, it's probably because I just didn't like this teacher. My stand on "Brave New World" however stands: it was a book that told you to quit trying, much like the way Ray Bradbury's book about Big Brother went down. (Was it 1984?)

 

[Sariteiya]

I was not huge on Catcher in the Rye. I understood the literary value, and I even felt that it was a decent examination of what it was to be a teen, but I couldn't help feeling that Holden was just this entitled little shit who needed a good slap. Maybe that was the point, but it wasn't exactly an enjoyable read.

I haven't read Austen, but I have to say I've never had the slightest urge to pick them up. They were a bit of a fad when I was in school amongst my friends, but I really didn't get the appeal of women in froofy gowns chasing down marriage.

But then again, it's probably because I just didn't like this teacher. My stand on "Brave New World" however stands: it was a book that told you to quit trying, much like the way Ray Bradbury's book about Big Brother went down. (Was it 1984?)

You're thinking Orwell, Not Bradbury. Orwell wrote 1984, Bradbury wrote Farenheit 451.

 

[Giest4life]

To Kill a Mockingbird That book just flew past past me: *WOOSH* Over my head. Did not get it and did not like it. It's not really "classical" literature because not only is it that old, it certainly isn't of the highest quality (the literal meaning of "classic"). But English teachers all over the States go ga ga after this book.

A Tale of Two Cities, Hamlet, and The Great Gatsby were all enormously underwhelming to me.

I actually really enjoyed Hamlet

 

[Giest4life]

Please excuse the Double Post.

 

[Saltyk]

Does anyone actually like "classic" literature? Maybe a few people do, but I've known very few that do.

By far, the worst to me was Old Man and the Sea. That book is all of 100 or 110 pages. It took me a week to finish. To put that in perspective, I can easily read a 300-400 page book in 3 days, if I like it. But Old Man and the Sea was truly horrible. I personally mocked the relationship with the boy for it undertones of pedophilia. Because I seriously couldn't see the old man obsessing over the kid so much otherwise. One person in my class told me that they skipped every other page. All I could think was, "Why didn't I do that? Nothing ever happened in the damn book. I wouldn't have missed anything."