# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/21 "2005-09-19T14:09:03Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#): > > I don’t know anyone else IRL who has read Mary Shelley’s _Frankenstein_. Also _The Mayor of Casterbridge_ by Thomas Hardy. I’ve never read _Frankenstein_ but I have read _Dracula_ and _Jekyll and Hyde_. I don’t know anyone else but me who has read Shakespeare’s _Henry VI, Parts I-III._ ---
**Author:** ![JerH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bb73d2/32.png) [@JerH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerH)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/22 "2005-09-19T14:17:55Z")
I’m the only person I know who’s read Jerome’s _Three Men In A Boat_. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/23 "2005-09-19T14:39:36Z")
Don Quixote was going to be my answer. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/24 "2005-09-19T14:45:22Z")
> [@Odinoneeye](#): > > The Divine Comedy. > > All three parts. I’m working through Il Purgatorio right now. I’ve also read Frankenstein, and will have to go pick Don Quixote, methinks. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/25 "2005-09-19T14:49:10Z")
There are a lot of classics I’ve read that I’m the only person that I know who _has_ read it. But others I know may have read them – I just don’t ask. I’ve read several listed here (including **Frankenstein** – and I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve read that one.) My suggestion – the works of Lucian, esopecially the Penguin translation. If you haven’t read it, it’s worth it. A Roman humorist and satirist who could have written yesterday (if you make a few changes in names). And his piece on Alexander the Wonder Worker is a bit of parapsychological debumking that could’ve been done by CSICOP. ---
**Author:** ![Theologue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@Theologue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Theologue)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/26 "2005-09-19T14:54:43Z")
> [@Odinoneeye](#): > > The Divine Comedy. > > All three parts. Read all three parts in high school as an elective in Senior English. ---
**Author:** ![Gorgonzola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e480ec/32.png) [@Gorgonzola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorgonzola)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/27 "2005-09-19T15:15:25Z")
\*The Egoist \* by [George Meredith](http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3086). ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/28 "2005-09-19T15:17:17Z")
I’ve read a lot of these. My vote is for _What Katy Did_, a children’s 19th century classic. I’ve read all three books in the series. Not only have I read _Ulysses_, but I have it memorized, so if anyone says they haven’t read it, I can helpfully recite it for them! Strangely, this doesn’t go over well at cocktail parties. I’ve read the _Divine Comedy_, _Hans Brinker_, _The Violent Bear it Away_ (and a bunch of other O’Connor. She has the best titles). Only parts of the _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_, though. Oh! And _Eight Cousins_, a little-known Louisa M. Alcott book. And _Little Lord Fauntleroy_. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/29 "2005-09-19T15:32:17Z")
Herodotus. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/30 "2005-09-19T15:37:03Z")
Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol.” Everybody has seen it a million times, but who else has actually read the book? ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/31 "2005-09-19T15:38:27Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol.” Everybody has seen it a million times, but who else has actually read the book? _raises hand_ Me. Sigh. ---
**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, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/32 "2005-09-19T16:29:28Z")
> [@Johnny Angel](#): > > [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) \ > > 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. I gotta read this. I heard or read somewhere that Red Harvest was one of David Milch’s inspirations for the HBO series Deadwood. I’ve read Frankenstein and A Christmas Carol. It’s the only Dickens I’ve read – maybe because it’s so short. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Plynck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Plynck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plynck)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/33 "2005-09-19T16:41:35Z")
Novels and short stories by Jean Rhys, such as _Wide Sargasso Sea_ and _Quartet_. Novels and short stories by Muriel Spark, such as _The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie_. ---
**Author:** ![jkirkman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac8455/32.png) [@jkirkman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jkirkman)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/34 "2005-09-19T16:44:54Z")
> [@JerH](#): > > I’m the only person I know who’s read Jerome’s _Three Men In A Boat_. Yes, but I bet now you NEVER forget to bring the can opener when camping/tailgating 😉 I think I’m name my next JRT Montmorency… ---
**Author:** ![G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c67d28/32.png) [@G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.B.H.Hornswoggler)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/35 "2005-09-19T16:55:11Z")
_The Duke’s Children_ by Anthony Trollope. It’s about the tenth Trollope book that anyone gets to, so you need to be pretty interested (or taking a very long college seminar) to get that far. I’ve also read _The Iliad_ and _The Odyssey_ (the Fitzgerald translation, I think). And \* Red Harvest\*. And _Three Men in a Boat_. But, **JerH** , have you read _Three Men on the Bummel_, the sequel? And what about _Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow_? _Boat_ isn’t all _that_ obscure… For Dickens, how about both _Hard Times_ and _Our Mutual Friend_? (Though I’m sure every Dickens piece, from _Sketches by Boz_ to _Edwin Drood_, has been read by far too many people to qualify.) I can’t really count **North and South** by Elizabeth Gaskell (since I read it in college, with a dozen or so other students in the same class), but I’d be surprised if anyone these days ever reads it without being forced to. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/36 "2005-09-19T17:01:14Z")
> [@](#): > > Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol.” Everybody has seen it a million times, but who else has actually read the book? I have, for one. I was under the impression that several Dopers have. It’s one of his more accessible works. I read and re-read it more times than I can recall. Then I found **The Annotated Christmas Carol** and read it even more times. Great book, and my favorite Dickens. And none of the movie or stage versions really does it completely and correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/37 "2005-09-19T17:07:30Z")
I will go with \*Work \* by Louisa May Alcott. It really isn’t a classic in itself, but it is by an author of other classics. That’s as close as I can come. It’s a bit darker than Little Women and explores the role of work in women’s lives at the time. I am glad I read it, got some interesting perspective on both the author and the times from reading it. ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/38 "2005-09-19T17:31:02Z")
> [@G.B.H. Hornswoggler](#): > > For Dickens, how about both _Hard Times_ and _Our Mutual Friend_? Read _Hard Times_ for high school sophomore English. ---
**Author:** ![DaphneBlack](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daphneblack/32/5389_2.png) [@DaphneBlack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaphneBlack)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/39 "2005-09-19T17:39:58Z")
> [@sciurophobic](#): > > I’ve never read _Frankenstein_ but I have read _Dracula_ and _Jekyll and Hyde_. > > I don’t know anyone else but me who has read Shakespeare’s _Henry VI, Parts I-III._ Me. I read it because they were the first three plays in the ‘Complete Shakespeare’ that I bought for $5. Amazingly, I kept reading after that. Also Don Quixote. And I was forced to read Frankenstein twice - ugh. Since I study Classics, I know a lot of people who have read the Iliad and the Odyssey. But I couldn’t get past the first chapter of Dracula. How could Stoker manage to make vampires _boring_? ---
**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, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/40 "2005-09-19T17:46:41Z")
> [@Plynck](#): > > Novels and short stories by Jean Rhys, such as _Wide Sargasso Sea_ and _Quartet_. > > Novels and short stories by Muriel Spark, such as _The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie_. Nope – two out of three of the specific titles you mention. (Haven’t read _Quartet_.) Here’s one – _Remembrance of Things Past_. All of it. The fact that not a syllable of it stayed with me isn’t entirely relevant, right? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292.md?page=3)