# whats the worst "classic " book/author you read or tried to read **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 24, 2019, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440 "2019-03-24T04:37:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2019, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/61 "2019-03-24T21:29:22Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > I’ve read a lot of classic books in the past few years, and the one I had to work hardest to finish was Henry James’s “The Ambassadors”; there were way too many sentences that I had to read three or four times before I could parse them. That is a cast-iron ballbreaker of a book. Felt painful in a way some of the more difficult modern writers can be, although there is nothing avant garde or explicitly challening about the style IIRC. Generally I’m pretty well-aligned with established literary ideas of what the canon looks like - if something’s considered great then I may not love it, but at a minimum I’ll think it’s good and worth reading. The one exception I can think of is Nabakov’s _Pale Fire_, just thought it was dreadful - mannered, tediously clever and unprofound. Happy to be told I’m wrong and need to go back and re-read it, it’s a deep structure and I could have missed several major ideas. Or if you told me it was hugely influential and deserves respect, I’d take that on board. But one thing I can never accept is that it’s a funny book. Jesus Christ it was the Dad-joke of high literary comedy, like seeing a stand-up comedian full on bombing on stage. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2019, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/62 "2019-03-24T21:36:05Z")
ive been told supposedly lolita is the biggest practical joke in the literary world … ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2019, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/63 "2019-03-24T21:53:46Z")
Pretty much any American writer (poetry, essays, novels, whatever) before Twain. I’m sure that’s more my problem with the general writing style of that era than anything I hold against them personally. Dickens irritates me because his works are so obviously padded - but he was paid by the word, so what the heck. OTOH, I found Faulkner worth the effort. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2019, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/64 "2019-03-24T21:57:27Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > _Atlas Shrugged_ I loved it (as in I wanted to read more, not that I liked the characters) until I figured out who John Galt was, at which time I lost any desire to continue on. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2019, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/65 "2019-03-24T22:11:04Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Faulkner The very brevity of this post could stand as an indictment of Faulkner’s entire body of work. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2019, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/66 "2019-03-24T22:15:32Z")
Oh, yeah, I’m another one who has no clue what the big deal is supposed to be about _Catcher in the Rye_. Holden tries to accomplish nothing, and he succeeds. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2019, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/67 "2019-03-24T23:55:44Z")
Many of mine have already been listed, such as Catch 22, Wuthering Heights, and Ulysses. One very recent example for me: Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. The narrator does nothing but hitchhike across the country, meet with his friends, have drinks at bars, etc. In spite of it all, there was nothing remotely relatable about the characters, and I gave up after 40 pages. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/68 "2019-03-25T00:04:16Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Oh, Henry James. Does anybody actually like Henry James? I liked “Portrait of a Lady” and “Washington Square” was all right. But Henry James actually thought his writing was improving in his later years (all evidence to the contrary, IMO). ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/69 "2019-03-25T00:42:44Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Tolstoy. God. I loved Anna Karinina. But it was a slog. Forget War and Peace. I did carry it around on campus, for a year, pleasantly dog eared and post-it noted. Just to see who noticed. I read War and Peace and did not enjoy it much. It was OK. Anna Karinina I quit reading because I hated the characters in it so much. > [@terentii](#): > > _ **Anna Karenina** _. Stupid story, not one likeable character in the book, and the ending is the best part. Why this is considered a “work of art” is beyond me. I hate the damned thing. My daughter, who’s half Russian and had to read the novel in college, agrees with me 100%. Ditto 100%. It’s a terrible book and only sold as a soap opera for people to read. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/70 "2019-03-25T00:58:02Z")
_Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus_. Snore. _The Tommyknockers_. Kids, do NOT snort cocaine and try to write a horror novel. _Robinson Crusoe_. The first sentence was four (tiny print) pages long. I couldn’t follow it. I wanted to, honest! ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/71 "2019-03-25T02:52:40Z")
More George Eliot hate from me. I had to study The Mill on the Bleeding Floss for two years for A level English Lit. Such a tedious writing style. Eliot cannot just show you a thing and she cannot tell you about it without going to great lengths to tell you what to think about it as well. So much misery piled upon the bright little girl protagonist until she is a destroyed young woman. Jane Austen. What others have said plus she is really really spiteful. She never met a person she couldn’t snark about and she’s not as funny as she thinks she is. ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/72 "2019-03-25T02:53:20Z")
Not trying to give any love to Tommyknockers, burpo, but the book WAS better than the movie. C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters for me. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/73 "2019-03-25T02:59:22Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > It’s not an original thought, but **Journal to Eliza** is every bit as bad as its reputation. Never intended to be published, and never should have been. > > Someone mentioned **DH Lawrence** ; agreed. > > **Catcher in the Rye** - dear Jesus, another vote for that and another slap for that little shit Caulfield. > > No hate for Thomas Mann? Then please allow me. Read **Death in Venice** because I adored the film. A word of advide: don’t. > > j **A Death in Venice** is the one I came in to mention. I never got past page 29 because I literally kept falling asleep. Had to do Cliff notes to pass the exam. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/74 "2019-03-25T03:11:18Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > I think I read “Catcher In the Rye” at the wrong time of my life. If I’d read it when I was Holden Caulfield’s age, I might have enjoyed it. Or at least sympathized with him. I was in my 30s, and wanted to slap him instead. I don’t know… I read it when I was 16, and I remember thinking he was entitled and something of a dick. It certainly did not resonate with my 16 year old experience. And I agree with **Chronos** - but extended. A lot of the books we read in high school just didn’t GO anywhere, or worse sometimes everything just turned to shit for the people in the book. And in a few choice ones (Sons and Lovers), both happened. I actually liked the stuff like Beowulf and Gawain and the Green Knight, because they actually had stories, unlike a lot of the other stuff we had to read. ---
**Author:** ![Daylate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9dc877/32.png) [@Daylate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daylate)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/75 "2019-03-25T03:12:53Z")
Forgot where I read this, but Henry James has inspired some great poetry, thusly; “Henry James, whatever his other claims, is not too duced lucid.” ---
**Author:** ![LVBoPeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@LVBoPeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LVBoPeep)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/76 "2019-03-25T03:21:47Z")
I would also climb on the Holden Caulfield hate train…I think I was about 18 when I read it and it did nothing for me. Maybe I wasn’t disenchanted enough or something… Ulysses is another one- I guess to be fair, I only read an excerpt assigned to us by my college English teacher but it involved a bowel movement and a bunch of other literal bullshit. Maybe I would not have had that reaction except the teacher had try to convince us that reading it would be a life changing experience. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/77 "2019-03-25T05:10:29Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > _Moby Dick_ was similar, in that I kept giving up after the same _percentage_ of the book, since each page was tolerable but then when nothing happens after several pages it also gets discouraging. _Moby Dick_ is 50% action adventure and 50% lectures about fish. I’m sure someplace out there must exist an edit that takes out all the fish stuff. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/78 "2019-03-25T05:31:38Z")
> [@Ponch8](#): > > Many of mine have already been listed, such as Catch 22, Wuthering Heights, and Ulysses. One very recent example for me: Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. The narrator does nothing but hitchhike across the country, meet with his friends, have drinks at bars, etc. In spite of it all, there was nothing remotely relatable about the characters, and I gave up after 40 pages. I just came here to say the same thing. Dude goes on a road trip, drinks a lot, and gets laid. Wash, rinse, repeat. How about Gabriel Garcia-Marquez’ “Love In The Time of Cholera”? ZZZZZZZZZZZ ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/79 "2019-03-25T05:33:01Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > _Moby Dick_ is 50% action adventure and 50% lectures about fish. I’m sure someplace out there must exist an edit that takes out all the fish stuff. Maybe a junior edition would do this? ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/80 "2019-03-25T06:03:40Z")
Oh! When I was in the 7th grade, we were forced to read “Shane.” This was our introduction to concepts like symbolism (“what does the dad’s struggle with the stump represent?” “No, Kevin, it doesn’t represent his desire to get the stump out of his yard. And quit using that language in my classroom.”). Loved the class. It was that teacher, Miss van Osdel (she of the polio brace on her leg), that made me realize that reading for fun was okay. She had us read a little bit of every genre. I had to read “Shane” and “The Hobbit” and others. Still love “The Hobbit.” Still hate “Shane” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440.md?page=5)