Subject: Why are Classics so hard to read?
Posted by: WorldBook14
Date: Sep 27 11
Does anyone else have this problem? I find it very hard to sit down and read an old classic book and understand it completely due to the style of writing.
Posted by: WorldBook14
Date: Sep 27 11
Does anyone else have this problem? I find it very hard to sit down and read an old classic book and understand it completely due to the style of writing.
53 replies. On page 3 of 3 pages. 1 2 3
lordprescott
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VBookWorm: I agree again about "1984". Orwell's books are definitely very relevant to today. Reply #41. Oct 22 22, 8:30 AM |
VBookWorm
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lordprescott: Yeah, Orwell's other books besides '1984' are still relevant today. 'Animal Farm' is. I adore 'The Merchant of Venice' by Shakespeare. My favorite quote is "If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?" Reply #42. Nov 20 22, 2:28 PM |
rubytops 
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Hardly ever read the classics. I really find Dickens very difficult. Reply #43. Dec 20 22, 3:04 PM |
Dagny1
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I'm not much of a Dickens fan either, Ruby. I guess overall for Dickens, Great Expectations would be my favorite. Bleak House has some good parts if that is the one where the man spontaneously combusts. Reply #44. Dec 20 22, 3:11 PM |
| rubytops
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I do like Thomas Hardy though. I did Return of the Native in school for my GCSEs. Read most of the rest after that...but it was still a very long time ago. Reply #45. Dec 28 22, 10:21 AM |
| Dagny1
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In general I also like Thomas Hardy. Here's an odd thing about Jude the Obscure. Read it decades ago, maybe even twice and loved it. Called it my favorite Hardy book for ages. Then I had occasion to read it again a few years ago and couldn't stand the character of Sue. Spoiled the novel for me! This change in taste has happened to me with a few other books/authors over the years. Different taste as I age I suppose. Reply #46. Dec 28 22, 8:41 PM |
| lordprescott
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I adore Dickens, although I can see that he can be hard to get into. Sometimes it's easier to watch A&E adaptations and the like in order to fully understand his characters. Reply #47. Jan 12 23, 3:33 PM |
WesleyCrusher
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One of the real problems - by far the biggest one - I have with classic literature is the way we had to wade through it in school. We wasted years plucking apart classical works word by word and taking away any meaning and enjoyment in the process. The net result is I haven't enjoyed a single work written before 1950ish ever since. Reading any of it just sets me back into that pattern. Complete success of the German school system, I guess. Reply #48. Jan 12 23, 3:43 PM |
| VBookWorm
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I read 'Oliver Twist' and 'Great Expectations' by Charles Dickens. I hope to read the rest. Reply #49. Jan 16 23, 2:05 PM |
postcards2go
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Wes, I had the same experience, in New York. Looking for symbolism, and parsing every sentence... heck, sometimes, every word! I have managed to overcome, and do read older literature... on my own terms, without discussion, at my own pace. In school, we were generally prohibited from reading ahead, so even if a book had interest, it was immediately rendered less enjoyable, by 'one chapter every few days' restrictions. My mother in law belongs to a book club, where they all discuss the same book. Sounds horrific :-p Reply #50. Jan 16 23, 4:44 PM |
| VBookWorm
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Your mother-in-law's book club doesn't sound horrific to me, Postie. Reply #51. Jan 30 23, 9:14 PM |
agony
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VBookWorm, don't just read classics - there was a lot about how people actually lived their lives that could not be published, years ago, that you'd be depriving yourself of a literary take on, if you avoided modern literature. And then there's the misogyny and racism that's scattered all through much older literature like raisins through a cake. I've read a lot of books by straight white men, and a lot of them were great, but there are other voices out there, and these days we can also hear what they have to say. All that said, I still would figure that about half of what I read was written before 1950, if I can use Wes' cutoff date. When I was a kid, I read a *lot* of Edwardian and Victorian children's books, so I've never found an older style difficult to get into, at least for anything from about 1750 onwards. You need to just give yourself a little time to get into the rhythm. Reply #52. May 06 23, 4:05 PM |
Cymruambyth
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Agony, I couldn't agree more about modern literature. Topics that were taboo 70 or more years ago are now written about, talked about, and we're all the better for that. VBookworm, as has been proved on this chat board, one person's classics are another person's God-forbids! and Im of the school that book lovers can easily separate the wheat from the chaff in the literary crops of the past 70 years. Many of the books written since 1950 are already classics - 'Catch-22' is one, along with 'To Kill a Mockingbird', 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy', 'The Hobbitt', 'The Life of Pi' the list goes on and on...and we mustn't forget the playwrights - Christopher Fry, Robert Bolt and Tom Stoppard, Arthur Miller and Peter Shafer, Tennessee Williams and Lorraine Hansbury. While I agree that a great many books written since 1950 are a sheer waste of paper (the entire oeuvre of Margaret Atwood comes to mind), I have a great fondness for modern writers like Ruth Rendell and P.D. James who command of language is superb. Sharon Kay Pelman is another favourite (try her trilogy of books about Llewelyn the Great - 'Here be Dragons', 'Falls the Shadow' and 'The Reckoning', and also 'The Sonne in Splendour', her masterful novel about Richard III). Enjoy the mediaeval murder mysteries by Ellis Peters and her delightful monk-detective, Brother Cadfael. I also recommend 'The Red Tent' by Anita Diamant, 'Tuesdays with Morry' by Mitch Albom, 'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society' by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. Have fun discovering some new classics. Reply #53. Oct 22 23, 1:51 PM |
53 replies. On page 3 of 3 pages. 1 2 3
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