# A classic read only by you **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 19, 2005, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292 "2005-09-19T00:37:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CBCD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@CBCD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBCD)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/1 "2005-09-19T00:37:16Z")
Inspired by a thread asking “What book has everyone read but you?” I pose the inverse question. What so-called classic book have you read, where you’ve never met another person who has read that same book? Books read for school don’t count. In my case, that would be Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates, by Mary Mapes Dodge. ---
**Author:** ![Mal\_Adroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@Mal\_Adroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mal_Adroit)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/2 "2005-09-19T00:54:30Z")
I get a lot of blank stares for \*The Violent Bear it Away \* by Flannery O’Connor. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/3 "2005-09-19T01:05:51Z")
I bet others have read _Ivanhoe_. Does poetry count? _Idylls of the King_, and also by Tennyson, the mention of _Ulysses_ is either mistaken for the novel with a _really_ strange look, or the thought that I am trying to describe Homer. ---
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/4 "2005-09-19T01:12:22Z")
The Divine Comedy. All three parts. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/5 "2005-09-19T01:16:53Z")
_Darkness at Noon_, by Arthur Koestler. Great Russian writing. It’s a short novel inspired by things that happened to some of the author’s friends in the Soviet Union. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/6 "2005-09-19T01:32:09Z")
“Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction, and The Drama” by The Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. Published in 1892. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/7 "2005-09-19T01:41:08Z")
“Typee” and “Omoo,” both by Herman Melville, and both well-loved by crossword puzzle editors. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/8 "2005-09-19T03:13:47Z")
“Classic” meaning something that’s on a best literature list somewhere? I’ve read Hans Brinker (required in grade school), the O’Connor story (was that the one with the unhappy little girl?), and Darkness at Noon. The only classic I can think of that others may not have read is Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/9 "2005-09-19T03:38:25Z")
I don’t know anyone else IRL who has read Mary Shelley’s _Frankenstein_. Also _The Mayor of Casterbridge_ by Thomas Hardy. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/10 "2005-09-19T04:03:54Z")
Pretty much anything I’ve read by Beckett. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/11 "2005-09-19T04:07:28Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#): > > I don’t know anyone else IRL who has read Mary Shelley’s _Frankenstein_. Well you have now! Oh wait. I’m not IRL. And yet it seems so R here… I don’t know if this counts but I’ve read Defoe’s Journal of the Plague Years. And yet I never read Robinson Crusoe. And I just read the Kreutzer Sonata. ---
**Author:** ![Loopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loopus/32/15343_2.png) [@Loopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopus)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/12 "2005-09-19T04:11:15Z")
I don’t meet many people that have read _Don Quixote_ in its entirety. And I’ve read it three times. I’ve read _Frankenstein_ two-and-a-half times. (The 1/2 time was when it was assigned to me in an English class, and I just needed to refresh my memory about the parts I was writing an essay about.) ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/13 "2005-09-19T04:11:35Z")
Mary Elizabeth Bradley, “Lady Audley’s Secret.” Wonderful 19th-century novel. ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/14 "2005-09-19T04:21:42Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#): > > Also _The Mayor of Casterbridge_ by Thomas Hardy. Me either, although I just read it last year myself. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/15 "2005-09-19T04:36:27Z")
> [@Loopus](#): > > I don’t meet many people that have read _Don Quixote_ in its entirety. And I’ve read it three times. I’m ploughing my way through it at the moment. A friend recommended it as one of “the all time great classics”. I can’t say that it’s grabbed me yet. I read Shelley’s \*Frankenstein \* a few years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/16 "2005-09-19T06:58:11Z")
I’ve read Frankenstein several times over the years. I actually kind of enjoy it. I’m probabl the only person who sought out, and read, Algernon Blackwood’s \*The Education of Uncle Paul \* (on the recommendation of S.T. Joshi). ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/17 "2005-09-19T07:30:22Z")
How about _The Illiad_ or _The Odyssey_? Granted I read much of them in the original Greek at school, but I read them both in translation afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![Sarah\_Woodruff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sarah\_Woodruff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarah_Woodruff)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/18 "2005-09-19T09:14:48Z")
Never met anyone else IRL who has read _Martin Chuzzlewit_. I’ve read it and damnit, I bloody _enjoyed_ it! I’m a freak. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/19 "2005-09-19T09:50:31Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Does poetry count? _Idylls of the King_, and also by Tennyson, the mention of _Ulysses_ is either mistaken for the novel with a _really_ strange look, or the thought that I am trying to describe Homer. Tennyson is one of my guilty pleasures. I’ve read both “Ulysses” and “The Lady of Shalott” and loved both. Alasdair Grey’s _Lanark_. Crazy, crazy book - like Lewis Carroll writing his own version of _A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man_ while possessed by the spirit of Kafka. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/20 "2005-09-19T13:54:07Z")
[Red Harvest](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0679722610/qid=1127132035/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-9949771-5963102?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) is a touchstone for me in a lot of ways, although when I mention it, especially to people who are fans of either [Kurosawa’s Version](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055630/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD0xfGZiPXV8cG49MHxrdz0xfHE9eW9qaW1ib3xmdD0xfG14PTIwfGxtPTUwMHxjbz0xfGh0bWw9MXxubT0x;fc=1;ft=21;fm=1) or the several homages/ripoffs of the Kurosawa version, I find that most haven’t heard of it and don’t care. Salon had an article a few months back talking about the [troubled history](http://archive.salon.com/books/feature/2005/02/28/hammett/) of attempts to make Red Harvest into a film. The copyrights have been difficult to secure, so a number of people have settled on making things similar, including The Coen Brothers’ [Miller’s Crossing](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100150/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD0xfGZiPXV8cG49MHxrdz0xfHE9bWlsbGVyJ3MgY3Jvc3Npbmd8ZnQ9MXxteD0yMHxsbT01MDB8Y289MXxodG1sPTF8bm09MQ__;fc=1;ft=23;fm=1) which combines the plot of Red Harvest with that of The Glass Key, making it unique enough to avoid a lawsuit, but still fairly invocative of its sources. I also don’t know anyone else who has read [A Shropshire Lad](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0486264688/qid=1127132635/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-9949771-5963102?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) to speak of it, although my fellow grad students are usually familiar with _To An Athlete Dying Young_. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292.md?page=2)