"Classic" Literature that you hated?

[Diminished Capacity]

Catcher in the Rye, worst book I ever read

Totally. I actually wrote a persuasive term paper in college about Catcher in the Rye not being a literary masterwork, but a novel that enjoys a staggering number of sold copies because high schools force their students to read it. I got a "B".

 

[ChildofGallifrey]

I was thrown a bunch of "classics" throughout school: Pride & Prejudice, All Quiet On the Western Front, Huck Finn, Frankenstein...the list goes on. I couldn't stand any of them. This is less a commentary on the quality of the books themselves, and more of the fact that I pretty much will not read anything that I'm being forced to read.

I read the 1400+ page unabridged version of Les Miserables in a week because I wanted to read it. They give me 3 months to read a 150 page thing that I have to read and I just won't. Sorry teacher, I read for enjoyment, and I've yet to meet anyone that enjoys doing things they're forced into (for further reference see Ed Norton's less-than-inspired performance in the Italian Job remake).

 

[Al-Bundy-da-G]

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

So now I know, and knowing is half the the battle GOOOOO JOE

 

[4173]

Ethan motherfucking, cocksucking, piece of shit Frome


At a minimum I've tolerated everything else I've been required to read for a course, but that book sapped my will to live. It was dull, vapid, lamely characterized and horribly paced.


And the ironic twist ending fails when the

Spoiler

suicide method is so fucking stupid. Taking a toboggan down a step hill with trees on it?

On the other hand, I expected to hate Pride & Prejudice and found myself loving it.

 

[onewheeled]

A Raisin in the Sun was the most frustrating book I've ever read.

I actually started to enjoy it towards the end... until the big reveal, and the main character just goes full circle and ends up exactly where he began at the beginning of the book. That was so incredibly frustrating, since I hated him throughout the book, and finally began to sympathize and feel for him, until then.

 

[LongAndShort]

The Great Gatsby. I hated that fucking book. Don't know why people put it on such a pedestal.
It's one of those books I can picture someone walking up to the author and saying "I really liked your [insert random socioeconomic topic here] message." and the author just went "Sure, let's go with that. That's exactly what I meant."

 

[Redout9122]

I didn't care much for Romeo and Juliet either. The Great Gatsby was just a big "WTF"-fest for me. A guy creepily obsesses over a girl he loved before he went off to war, and the narrator glorifies his feelings as some kind of longing for an idealized perception of the past.

Actually all I saw in Great Gatsby was a metric fuckton of post-modernist angst.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Tom Sawyer and, Huck Finn. I disliked those but then I think it's more Mark Twain in general that I dislike. Can't really think of any others at the moment. I loved Midsummer Night's Dream and, Lord of the Flies. I don't remember any other 'classics' though and I know school would have been the only time I'd have read them.

Glad I'm out of school. No chance of crappy 'classic' literature.

 

[genamp]

It has to be Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage. The irony and realism are on track, but the damn thing is so terribly boring; to top it off, it has the most ineffectual feature character and it's psychological portrayals of "fear" and "war" (or what-have-you) were just... bland, to say the least. Truly awful book, just truly awful.

 

[Saltyk]

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

I had fun reading Dante's Inferno (and I didn't read it because of my school or because of the video game). Well ok some of it was confusing and it had some incredibly dated references but the part I got through was cool.

Well, not all classic literature is bad. I personally enjoyed Brave New World, 1984, and Fahrenheit 451. They all had great and interesting concepts and stories. It's just the vast majority of the tripe that I was forced to read was very bad. At best, they were books that I wouldn't have chosen to read.

 

[Zeroththeking]

Catcher in the Rye... I was the same as Holden. Now that I look back, I liked it due to that reason.

Great Gatsby: Horribly written. They had an amazing plot arc, but fucked it up through boring descriptions that go on and on. Descriptions are okay but that book went overboard.

Huckleberry Finn: Almost failed English because I didn't read it. That speaks for itself.

Romeo + Juliet: Better then the anime, that is for damn sure...

Odyssey: Oddyseus is a douche. Plain and simple.

 

[ajemas]

Jane Eyre was the single worst book that I have ever read. I have always managed to at least finish every single book that I was given in school, except for this piece of garbage.

 

[RatRace123]

Catcher in the Rye and Walden.
Largely for the same reason, too much pretentious whining.

 

[Trivea]

One day, Hemmingway is going to rise from the grave, grab a tenth grade English teacher by the throat, and say, "The old man is just an old man, the sea is just a sea, and the fish is just a fish."

There are a lot of pieces of "classic" literature I hate (see anything written by Virginia Wolfe ever), but Old Man and the Sea takes the cake for that on me because it was a book about absolutely nothing followed by six weeks of symbolism discussion.

 

[twistedmic]

Catcher in the Rye, worst book I ever read

I couldn't get make it past the third chapter of that book. Holden what's his name was a whinny little fuck that I wanted to stomp to death.

And I couldn't even finish the first chapter of 'Moby Dick'. Though I was able to read and enjoy 'Dracula', 'White Fang', 'Call of the Wild' and 'Sea Wolf' by, respectively, Brham Stoker and Jack London, so I can enjoy classic literature.

 

[scorptatious]

Lord of the Flies.

I just didn't find it appealing at all. I don't know why.

As for books I did enjoy, I loved To Kill a Mockingbird.