Classics that disappoint

[Billy]

Anything by Dickens. I have tried reading many of his books - including Great Expectations and The Tale of Two Cities , which most people seem to enjoy the most - but I have never managed to get even a quarter of the way through them.

The main thing about his books that put me off is his writing style. I just cannot get into it no matter how hard I try.

I liked Oliver Twist. Have you tried that? It is pretty depressing, but I liked it beter than the others.

I just finished Conrad's Heart of Darkness and I didn't like it. I just couldn't get into the story.

I didn't mind Heart of Darkness, but I found it pretty confusing at first.

I guess that Conrad has a similar style to Dickens in the sense that they both rave on for pages describing stuff that doesn't need so much detail. My dad assures me that that is what is known as proper English prose. He thinks it's as boring as I do.

 

[Peder]

Ah, Heart of Darkness! I can't even remember whether I finished it or not, but do remember that I stopped following the story on abut page 2! I was steered to it by seeing the movie Apocalypse Now, which is also a pretty murky thing, but that didn't help any because I couldn't find any resemblance at all.

One of the few reading disasters in all of my reading!


Peder

 

[Zolipara]

I really liked Heart of Darkness. I also started reading after having seen Apocalypse Now. Its not hard to find the resemblance but you might have to go beyond page 2.

 

[Peder]

Zollipara
I'll take the advice.
Thanks
Peder

 

[SFG75]

Ah, Heart of Darkness! I can't even remember whether I finished it or not, but do remember that I stopped following the story on abut page 2! I was steered to it by seeing the movie Apocalypse Now, which is also a pretty murky thing, but that didn't help any because I couldn't find any resemblance at all.

One of the few reading disasters in all of my reading!


Peder

"I love the smell of napalm in the morning."

-How about that as a favorite quote as a salvageable kernel from the book/movie?

 

[MonkeyCatcher]

I was a bit disappointed with 1984 by George Orwell. I think I must have expected it to be a bit more exciting or something. I had heard heaps about it and was looking forward to reading it. I'm not saying it's not a good book, but I have to admit it wasn't what I thought it would be.

I felt exactly the same way - it /was/ a good book, but just not as good as I was led to believe, at least IMHO. I actually much prefer Animal Farm, but maybe because I'm interested in the time period that it "relates" to.

I liked Oliver Twist. Have you tried that? It is pretty depressing, but I liked it beter than the others.

I've only read the children's version of this, so maybe I should give it a try. I just really don't like his writing style at all - it bores me immensely.

 

[Billy]

Monkeycatcher, I liked Animal Farm better as well. I suppose because I had studied the period in history that it was about and so got a lot out of it.

As for Dickens, I know what you mean. I was supposed to read Bleak House for uni, but I just couldn't finish it. What really turned me off was the fact that he took so long to describe the fog rolling in. I really didn't think that should take more than a paragraph or two, so when several pages later I was still reading about the fog, I did get a little bored.

 

[MonkeyCatcher]

What really turned me off was the fact that he took so long to describe the fog rolling in. I really didn't think that should take more than a paragraph or two, so when several pages later I was still reading about the fog, I did get a little bored.

Hehe That's exactly my problem with Dickens

 

[WoundedThorns]

Scarlet letter and killer angels = going on to 10th grade, summer reading..

oh man, there are definatly plenty of classics that disappoint. i remember being disappointed when i was reading The Bell Jar, but i was 14. i want to give it another try.
a scarlet letter completely let me down, but i was expecting it to be crap. same with Killer Angels. maybe i'd give Killer Angels another shot now that i actually learned about the civil war. do not hand a teenager a novel about a war she didn't learn about, and expect her to tolarate it. =X

haha, i know its not a classic, but the 5th harry potter book disappointed me. =P i wonder if they'll be classics w/in 50 years or so... LOTR is actually an old series

damn. i gotta read wuthering heights by the end of Jan for honors english 11.