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Classics that disappoint

oi. this thread is highly appropriate (who hasn't been disappointed by a classic?) but it's very depressing. :(

to the lighthouse (woolfe): a shining example of why interior monolgue should remain interior. bo-ring.

faulkner, d.h. lawrence: they have themes from here to forever, but man, do i find their work boring. bo-ring. ...but hefty books and therefore good doorstops.

the scarlet letter: the only book i didn't finish in my entire scholastic career (including a degree in english), and one of only three or so i didn't finsih in my entire life. my teacher said he didn't show the affair part because he was focussing on sin and its aftermath. but really, why leave out the best part? the clothes of the era just lend themselves to heaving bosoms!! ;)

haven't read moby dick. probably won't.
 
I could never get into Wuthering Heights. I tried to force myself to read it but found it too depressing. And I was disappointed with Jane Eyre, especially after I heard it was such a good book. I found it boring.
 
If you can count 'Gone with the wind' as a classic, I want to add that to this list.

I tried reading a few years back and I was so bored, I was so bored.... (I meant to put it twice) I just had to close the book. Never tried it again after that. And have no intentions of doing so.
 
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick. I was really disappointed by that novel. I don't know if it was because I saw the movie Blade Runner about 10 times (being loosely based on the book)...but whatever the reason I just didn't like it.
 
I completely agree with you about Faulkner. I read As I Lay Dying and really, I felt envious of the dead mother they were hauling across the state in the cart. At least she didn't have to suffer through all the nonsensical, disgusting, and incomprehensible-for-no-good-reason blather the other characters were spouting all the time.

Oh boy, (you got me started) and has anyone suffered through Samuel Beckett?? I had a professor a year or two ago who LOVED Beckett and that was pretty much all we read for a semester. 15 pages about sucking on pebbles. 30 pages about lying in the mud in the rain. God help me.

On the other hand, I really liked Heart of Darkness. I found it truly fascinating to unravel, and I thought it had a lot of depth.
 
I'm voting for Moby Dick as the worst classic (Sorry Prof. Mooney at Immaculata University).

Actually, I couldn't put Wurthering Heights down. It was very depressing though.

I have to agree with the Dickens' crowd too. I know it's blaphemy, but talk about getting into sentences you don't know how to find your way out of.
 
Dracula - reading it made me want to kill myself. How boring can vampires be? Very, according to Bram Stoker.
 
Maybe it was just the English teacher I had, but I hated The Great Gatsby. I might have liked it better if I had read it on my own and not for a class, though.
 
VTChEwbecca said:
The Great Gatsby - just not into people being drunk all the freaking time.
God, I hated that book too! I mean, I wasn't bothered with the people being drunk all the time (I like to do that sometimes too) but I just didn't get into the book or the characters at all.

Other classics I hated ... Well, I am yet to finish a sinlge book by Dickens (and I've started Tale of Two Cities, The Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist at least). Also Catcher in the Rye was a huge disappointment, I was expecting an awakening of some sort but I was too busy being annoyed at Holden.
 
Oponn said:
Dracula - reading it made me want to kill myself. How boring can vampires be? Very, according to Bram Stoker.

Oh no! I loved Dracula. I thought it was one of those discreetly scary books. You know, the kind you don't really think is scary until you realize that you are looking over your shoulder and jumping at every little thing. I get tired of the kind of scary novels that are full of blantant scare tactics. Don't get me wrong, they are still scary. But novels like Dracula keep me scared for a lot longer.

On that note, what did everyone think of Frankinstien? I went in expecting something totally different than what it actually was. I was pleasantly suprised. I felt bad for the "monster" though.
 
oh i loved the great gatsby, because i only watched the movie. :D

i was disappointed by Jane austin, she sucks the and bored me to tears.
 
honeydevil said:
and i don't like mark twain. come on, couldn't he write about somethign different than the mississippi?

He did, e.g, The Prince and the Pauper, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
 
Wabbit said:
( Look ma, i'm actually discussing BOOKS!!! ) :D

I was looking through my bookshelf today. I noticed Conrad's Heart of Darkness sitting there on my shelf. I must say, I was pretty disappointed with it. I find the classics to be very hit and miss afair. Hmmmm.

What classics have you read, only to be disappointed with?

Regards
SillyWabbit
I think I must say I was disappointed with the book Oliver Twist. I think this may be because the words were hard and to long for me to understand.
 
RainbowGurl said:
I think I must say I was disappointed with the book Oliver Twist. I think this may be because the words were hard and to long for me to understand.
That's no reason to be disappointed with the book. You should be disappointed in both yourself and the British educational system.
 
Stewart said:
That's no reason to be disappointed with the book. You should be disappointed in both yourself and the British educational system.

speak for yourself and mark twain was always introduced to me as a, mybe not kids book, but yeah something like that and with the "hard" words how should the kid understand that?
 
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