Yep, put me down for Pilgrim’s Progress. I actually kind of liked it. Ditto for Middlemarch. Proust, on the other hand… I read about half of one book, and thought to myself, “Are these not some of the stupidest characters ever created?” Obviously this is a minority opinion.
Okay, here’s another one: Dangerous Liaisons, by Laclos. Or how about Philosophy in the Boudoir by the Marquis de Sade? It’s a classic of its own very narrow genre.
Gosh, we could have a fun game.
For example, I post Middlemarch.
Sal Ammoniac has read Middlemarch, so he can post a book of his choice, and he chooses Dangerous Liasons.
Next poster must have read Dangerous Liasons, and posts Bartleby the Scrivener.
And so it goes until we all realize we need to get out more.
Sounds enjoyable. I’d rather not go through the exercise of posting everything I have read that others mentioned or the languages that I have read them in.
Let’s start with something classical but uncommonly read.
The Metamorphoses, or The Golden Ass of Apuleius.
N.B. If you have just read the Cupid & Psyche episode but have not read the entire work, it doesn’t count. 
I’ve read the entire Golden Ass od Apuleius.
Who’s read The Epic of Gilgamesh (any translation)?
For many years, I cherished having the magazine in which Wonder Warthog made his initial appearance. Every time I mention him, I get blank looks. Fearless, Fighting, Foulmouthed Wonder Warthog was a fun read.
Anybody else ever read WW?
Fun game – recommend a new thread – which I’d start, but, believe it or not, I’m at work and busy.
I’ve read Gilgamesh and will do … “Morte D’Arthur.” (Only because the fact that I had helped for a Final Jeopardy in my game show past.)
I’ve had the same experience, and agree that it is a gem, and a damn funny gem at that. For those for whom Twain means only a vague memory of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn*, I always recommend Roughing It. It’s one of the books I’ve given most often as a gift.
My nomination is Drums Along the Mohawk by Walter D. Edmonds. Sure it was made into a famous movie staring Henry Fonda, and supposedly has “classic status,” but hell if I don’t run into very few people who have actually read it.
Raises hand. I liked it, too. Read back in high school.
Some of these I hesitate to call “classics”. The Mists of Avalon (which I have read and really enjoyed) was written just in 1982. Is that enough time to really determine if it will have staying power and become a classic?
If so, I add Garcia Marquez’ Love in the Time of Cholera and Chronicle of a Death Foretold (HIGHLY recommend that second one), in addition to the obvious One Hundred Years of Solitude.
In defense of Hung Mung, he’s a teenager. An adult’s list and a teenager’s lists will be different.
Yep. For those who’ve never heard of him, Wonder Warthog was an “underground” comic character by Gilbert Shelton, who also brought us The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. Considering that WW is no more foul-mouthed or obscene than half of what Dark Horse comics prints these days, it’s a shame he was relegated to the underground comics ghetto. Before his time I guess.
:smack: Y’know, I usually vet a thread pretty thoroughly before posting but didn’t bother this time, being too rushed to read it, too lazy to search it, and too overconfident of the novelty of plugging Lucian to feel compelled to do either. Props to CalMeacham and thanks for the heads-up on the Penguin edition.
Whoa. I have to bow my head before this. You are a paragon of well-readness.
On Hardy: I read the Mayor of Casterbridge and then I read Jude the Obscure and then I shot myself. Seriously, don’t get near this stuff without a lot of Prozac handy.
Some of you may enjoy this: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2000/09/15adaptations.html
I read those. I read Justine, too and I’m a bit embarassed about it. It was a long time ago. Pierre Louys and The Story of O, too. It was a phase!
I’ve read Nathanel West, I love him!
I don’t know if Jean Cocteau’s fiction is “classic” but I read The Holy Terrors.
Well, I’m 23. But close enough.
I’ll concede Mists of Avalon and Book of the New Sun and Gaiman, I obviously misunderstood the OP somewhat.
Since my tastes skew to the modern, perhaps I’ll just keep my nose out. Most of my ‘classic’ reading came in school (and is thus disqualified by the OP). Also, I detest most 19th century literature because I find large amounts of exposition tedious.
Here’s one I haven’t seen mentioned: the play The Way of the World by William Congreve. It’s a Restoration comedy, and I know it’s still occasionally performed, so persumably its read, but I’ve never met anyone who has.
I’ve read a few (bunch?) of these, but I think the only one that hasn’t already been seconded is The Twelve Caesars, Suetonius. I haven’t read any of the mentioned Greek classics, but did read Lysistrata.
If I can slide away from classics, many, many people have read Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon or Snow Crash. But fewer have read his earlier book, Zodiac. And I doubt many even know of his first book, The Big U, let alone admit to having read it. But I do often wonder if there’s anyone who like me not only read it, but also the entire length of the book that inspired it “The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind”
For the record, Zodiac is great, The Big U has a couple moments of good satire but probably not enough, and the Bicameral mind is almost (but not quite) worth looking at just for the sheer wonder of seeing someone stretch the most ridiculous thesis you could imagine into a many hundred page book that almost makes it seem plausible.
The Dusty Classic Tag, You’re It game thread is now here
Yee-haw!
I wouldn’t be so quick about striking Book of the New Sun. Even if it’s not a classic now, it sure will be in 50 years.
I have read the Jaynes – in hardback, when it first came out.
Sigh.