Posted on 03/02/2022 9:20:32 AM PST by C19fan
They're the books we know we’re meant to have read – but which many of us are too daunted by to actually pick up and start.
That hasn’t stopped nearly half of Britons from pretending to have devoured classics in an attempt to impress others.
An overwhelming 95 per cent of people find reading older novels and plays hard work, a poll has found. However many said they bluff their literary knowledge to appear more intelligent.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I’ve read the four shortest ones.
Skipped to the end of Hunchback. Most heartbreaking twist of vengeance and fate ever contrived. Not like Disney.
Heard Molly’s chapter from Ulysses read out loud. Maybe if I was driving from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego and it was on CD. Same with Moby Dick, but the weight might really cut into gas mileage.
Gave up on Anna Karenina 90% in. If there is no character as stupid and tiresome in War and Peace I might try.
My attention span has been destroyed by the internet.
I am surprised that no one on this thread quotes from “Atlas Shrugged”. Although the politics and meaning were great, it was interminable in many parts due to the bad writing.
I’ve read 1, 3 and 5. Not dull at all! Other Victorian English novels forced to read in High School almost made me hate literature. Then I found THE ODYSSEY and CAPTAIN BLOOD in the library and my love of reading began.
I have since read hundreds of books but no Victorian novels.
“no one on this thread quotes from “Atlas Shrugged”
Because it’s a thread about literature.
The Bondarchuk movie of War And Peace(1966) follows the book nicely but had to leave out huge amounts of the book or else the movie would have been about 36 hours long.
If you get the movie get the original Russian Cinema Counsel version, not the KULTUR version which has been chopped, pan and scan along with faded colors.
Ayn Rand had zero talent as a writer and wasn’t much of a thinker either. Her novels were something you would expect a college junior to slap together. Never understood her appeal among libertarians, probably because most libertarians have very little idea of what constitutes good literature. It’s pathetic that they would extoll such a juvenile piece of work.
Hamlet bores people? I don’t think there’s anything in Shakespeare that’s boring. Maybe they just can’t get past the old English, but it definitely isn’t boring.
HAHAHAHAHA! Nice, I will try to remember that one.
Only 2 for me. I know of the others and have read say Anna Karenina and other classics. I know my knowledge base is wanting.
I don’t envy you having read Wuthering Heights.
I read a synopsis and ws befuddled for five minutes.
6/10. I doubt I’ll get around to reading “Moby Dick” “Le Miserables” “War and Peace” or “Hunchback”.
And so much hate for “Ulysses”. I enjoyed it. And I’m not saying that to impress anyone
for readers, the best novel you never heard of? Try STONER.
Remarkable
Moby Dick - extremely dull. Everything you are taught on not to write is how this is written.
Wuthering Heights - this was assigned to us in 7th Grade English class. Extremely dull for 12 year old boys. Turned me off gothic novels.
Animal Farm - excellent.
Bleak House - excellent.
The Great Gatsby.
I've read half.
There are plenty of “classics” that need to be put on a list of Really Really Stupid Boring Books.
I’ve always been a voracious reader and actually fought my way through most of this list.
But the very first RRSBB I ever read was one I was forced to read in class in middle school: Silas Marner. I still go to book sales looking for copies of this book which I then destroy in as public a manner as possible.
I read for enjoyment, not endurance.
Tried War and Peace, just because. Too stilted for me to get into and enjoy. Suffering through a book to be “well read” does not matter to me.
***”Moby Dick” was a struggle, I’ll grant you that. ***
I found it an fairly easy read. Have read it several times. I sometimes wonder if he was paid by the word as he does chase too many irrelevant rabbits in it, much like Cervantes did in Don Quixote.
What would be the top ten American novels that people would bluff, saying they have read them to appear intelligent?
Charlton Heston’s performance of Mark Antony’s speech is one of my favorites.
It’s safe to say we all regret it.
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