# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/81 "2019-03-25T06:33:00Z")
I guess I am in the minority but I actually enjoyed reading Stephen King’s _Tommyknockers_. Though I am not sure I’d consider it or anything else King wrote as a “classic”. I think I would list _Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas_ by Hunter S. Thompson as one of the worst books I’ve ever tried to read. (And I’ve read the novelization of _Hard Target_–that’s right someone wrote a novelization to a Jean-Claude van Damme film.) [https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Target-Movie-Robert-Tine/dp/0425138615/ref=olp\_product\_details?\_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=1553495546&sr=1-72](https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Target-Movie-Robert-Tine/dp/0425138615/ref=olp_product_details?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=1553495546&sr=1-72) ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/82 "2019-03-25T08:29:38Z")
Saw the thread title and wondered if Theodore Dreiser would count. Well, if we’re listing more recent authors like Cormac McCarthy, then I would say Dreiser qualifies. As a terrible writer. As a writer who sounded old-fashioned and even at the time was scalded by reviewers. (Well, at least by Dorothy Parker.) An American Tragedy was turgid prose at best. Made a great movie, though. And I say this as someone who slogged my way through Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy. As an aside, I generally hate poetry. But I actually like some of Thomas Hardy’s poetry. “The smile on her face was the deadest thing alive enough to die.” Or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/83 "2019-03-25T09:10:01Z")
> [@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. > [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Maybe a junior edition would do this? Is there an edition that takes out all the action adventure, but retains all the fish? Cos I think I got that one. ---
**Author:** ![Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/59ef9b/32.png) [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorkshire_Pudding)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/84 "2019-03-25T09:33:53Z")
> [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](#): > > 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. Yeah, my Eliot hatred stems from MOTF at A Level too. Wretched drivel. Well, actually, “wretched drivel” was how I described the Wordsworth to which I was also subjected. Never read Austen, don’t really intend to… ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/85 "2019-03-25T09:40:49Z")
The classic that disappointed me the most was probably **Thomas Malory** ’s _Le Morte d’Arthur_. I was sure I was going to love it and found it stitled, dull and infuriatingly repetitive. 75% of the book reads like this : When that the eleven kings saw that there was so few a fellowship did such deeds of arms, they were ashamed and set on them again fiercely; and there was Sir Ulfius’s horse slain under him, but he did marvellously well on foot. But the Duke Eustace of Cambenet and King Clariance of Northumberland, were alway grievous on Ulfius. Then Brastias saw his fellow fared so withal he smote the duke with a spear, that horse and man fell down. That saw King Clariance and returned unto Brastias, and either smote other so that horse and man went to the earth, and so they lay long astonied, and their horses’ knees brast to the hard bone. Then came Sir Kay the seneschal with six fellows with him, and did passing well. With that came the eleven kings, and there was Griflet put to the earth, horse and man, and Lucas the butler, horse and man, by King Brandegoris, and King Idres, and King Agwisance. Then waxed the medley passing hard on both parties. When Sir Kay saw Griflet on foot, he rode on King Nentres and smote him down, and led his horse unto Sir Griflet, and horsed him again. Also Sir Kay with the same spear smote down King Lot, and hurt him passing sore. That saw the King with the Hundred Knights, and ran unto Sir Kay and smote him down, and took his horse, and gave him King Lot, whereof he said gramercy. When Sir Griflet saw Sir Kay and Lucas the butler on foot, he took a sharp spear, great and square, and rode to Pinel, a good man of arms, and smote horse and man down, and then he took his horse, and gave him unto Sir Kay. Then King Lot saw King Nentres on foot, he ran unto Melot de la Roche, and smote him down, horse and man, and gave King Nentres the horse, and horsed him again. Also the King of the Hundred Knights saw King Idres on foot; then he ran unto Gwiniart de Bloi, and smote him down, horse and man, and gave King Idres the horse, and horsed him again; and King Lot smote down Clariance de la Forest Savage, and gave the horse unto Duke Eustace. And so when they had horsed the kings again they drew them, all eleven kings, together, and said they would be revenged of the damage that they had taken that day. The meanwhile came in Sir Ector with an eager countenance, and found Ulfius and Brastias on foot, in great peril of death, that were foul defoiled under horse-feet. Change the names, then lather, rinse, repeat for the best part of 800 pages :mad:. That book single-handedly used up my quota of the verb “to smite” and the expression " passing sore" I was underwhelmed by _The Iliad_ for the same reasons, although it struck me as a bit more varied. _The Odyssey_ was great, though and very different. _War and Peace_ was also a slog, as was all of the, admittedly rather little, **Dostoevsky** that I have tried. I’m currently reading **Thomas Mann** ’s _The Magic Mountain_ and… its another contender for the title. I’ve reached page 292 and it’s getting slightly better but the first 200 pages seemed to me painfully verbose and futile. ---
**Author:** ![LLCoolL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/llcooll/32/3596_2.png) [@LLCoolL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LLCoolL)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/86 "2019-03-25T09:53:56Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Well, since you put quotes around ‘classic’, I’m going to stretch the interpretation to include “Catch-22”. Ugh, how I loathed that book, it was awful to try and read I had no patience for it… I’m with you on “Catch-22”. On a trip to China a few years ago, I didn’t bring enough reading material and ran out. Visited a huge, multi-floor bookstore downtown, and they had one row of English-language novels. Picked up a paperback copy of “Catch-22” for something like $20; and even though I was desperate for \*anything \*to pass the time, I couldn’t get beyond about 1/3 of the book. ---
**Author:** ![LLCoolL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/llcooll/32/3596_2.png) [@LLCoolL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LLCoolL)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/87 "2019-03-25T09:55:38Z")
> [@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. This is the first example which popped into my mind for this topic. I read it in English class when I was about 16. It was kind of funny at first, but quickly became annoying. A major slog to get through. Don’t plan on ever reading it again. ---
**Author:** ![LLCoolL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/llcooll/32/3596_2.png) [@LLCoolL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LLCoolL)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/88 "2019-03-25T10:10:17Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > ive been told supposedly lolita is the biggest practical joke in the literary world … Catch the 1962 Stanley Kubrick film adaptation starring James Mason as Humbert Humbert. Cool film. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/89 "2019-03-25T10:12:52Z")
Philip Roth, Portnoys Complaint. A misogynist talks about masturbation. Maybe there’s some other topic if you keep reading, but eventually I gave up. I really enjoyed both Moby Dick and Heart of Darkness. But I disliked a lot of the other books mentioned in this thread, too. ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/90 "2019-03-25T11:14:58Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > … > > _We_ by Evgeny Zamyatin. It’s usually thrown into the science fiction curriculum because he didn’t write in English, but it’s really just the same sort of dystopia Orwell and Huxley did better. Why they overlooked the immensely superior Stanislaw Lem mystifies me. > > … They may have done it better arguably, but **Zamyatin** ’s place in the curriculum is entirely justified by the fact that he not only came first, but was almost prescient when it came to “describing” what 20th-century dictatorships would look like. I agree with your assessment of **Lem** , though. As for **Henry James** , I consider _The Turn of the Screw_ as one of the best “ghost” story ever, one that also has real artistic merit to boot. His other stuff, I didn’t care much for. After re-reading the thread, I realized that I haven’t included _The Catcher in the Rye_, _The Great Gatsby_, _Under the Volcano_ and _Heart of Darkness_. After some deliberation, it’s fine. It takes _some_ kind of distinction to make it to a “worst of” list and these books don’t have it. They were just : “Well that’s a wrap, I guess. Next.” ---
**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:** [March 25, 2019, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/91 "2019-03-25T11:28:26Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > I felt that way about _Great Expectations_ in high school. When I had to read it again for grad school I understood why it’s so well regarded. It is a great novel. Nowadays, I read Dickens and am never disappointed. > > I didn’t care much for _A Separate Peace_, though I’d probably understand it better now. Oh, God, **a Separate Peace**. I had blotted that from memory. I had to read it in high school, then again in college. I loathed the book. my wife, _pepper mill_, also had to read it in high school, and also hated it. I’m not sure that I’d like it any better if I were to re-read it today. ---
**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:** [March 25, 2019, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/92 "2019-03-25T11:38:45Z")
Oh, and Henry James – I’d forgotten him, too. I had to read _A Turn of the Screw_ in High School, and found it torture. But then I had to read _The Beast in the Jungle_ in College, and found it infinitely worse. The titular Beast is metaphorical, which doesn’t bother me. But the whole point of the book is that _Nothing Happens_, and the problem is that the book is written in that turgid, bloated, infinitely-long sentenced Henry James Prose, and it takes _so damned long to Not Happen._ It is appropriate at this point to bring up Edith Wharton on Henry James. She might have indulged in a little parody here, but, I suspect, not much: > [@](#): > > The most absurd of these episodes occurred on another rainy evening when James and I chanced to arrive at Windsor long after dark. […] While I was hesitating and peering out into the darkness James spied an ancient doddering man who had stopped in the rain to gaze at us. ‘Wait a moment, my dear—I’ll ask him where we are’; and leaning out he signalled to the spectator. > > ‘My good man, if you’ll be good enough to come here, please; a little nearer—so,’ and as the old man came up: ‘My friend, to put it to you in two words, this lady and I have just arrived here from Slough; that is to say, to be more strictly accurate, we have recently passed through Slough on our way here, having actually motored to Windsor from Rye, which was our point of departure; and the darkness having overtaken us, we should be much obliged if you would tell us where we now are in relation, say, to the High Street, which, as you of course know, leads to the Castle, after leaving on the left hand the turn down to the railway station.’ > > I was not surprised to have this extraordinary appeal met by silence, and a dazed expression on the old wrinkled face at the window; nor to have James go on: ‘In short’ (his invariable prelude to a fresh series of explanatory ramifications), ‘in short, my good man, what I want to put to you in a word is this: supposing we have already (as I have reason to think we have) driven past the turn down to the railway station (which in that case, by the way, would probably not have been on our left hand, but on our right) where are we now in relation to…’ > > ‘Oh, please,’ I interrupted, feeling myself utterly unable to sit through another parenthesis, ‘do ask him where the King’s Road is.’ > > ‘Ah—? The King’s Road? Just so! Quite right! Can you, as a matter of fact, my good man, tell us where, in relation to our present position, the King’s Road exactly is?’ > > ‘Ye’re in it’, said the aged face at the window. From _a Backward Glance_ by Wharton. Available many places, including here – [https://blog.bestamericanpoetry.com/the\_best\_american\_poetry/2012/08/when-henry-james-asked-for-directions-by-edith-wharton.html](https://blog.bestamericanpoetry.com/the_best_american_poetry/2012/08/when-henry-james-asked-for-directions-by-edith-wharton.html) ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/93 "2019-03-25T12:04:02Z")
Jean-Paul Sartre _Being and Nothingness_. I got an A in my undergrad philosophy course in spite of Sartre. After reading a page I’d have no idea what I’d just read, but I’d turn the page and keep going. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/94 "2019-03-25T12:24:01Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Well, since you put quotes around ‘classic’, I’m going to stretch the interpretation to include “Catch-22”. Ugh, how I loathed that book, it was awful to try and read I had no patience for it. I have never made it through that book. I have tried on multiple occasions, figuring that there must be something spectacular about it that one only gets after finishing the whole thing, but I also lack the patience. The book is a one-tricky pony, with the slightly-off-kilter rambling tone and focus on the silliness of every single thing layering on as if the book were some sort of literary fugue with its theme surfacing forwards, backwards, and in different keys. No, I don’t have patience for “Catch-22” And I barely had patience to finish “The Catcher in the Rye,” which seemed so incredibly dated by the 40’s slang that was supposed to make it edgy and cool. It was a let-down. And since we are talking about “classic” books with scare quotes, I ought to mention the Aubrey-Maturin series of swashbuckler books by Patrick O’Brian. They are treated with almost as much reverence as C. S. Forester’s Hornblower series, but when I started working my way through them, I got stuck in the middle of book 2. It starts out well enough, but suddenly changes from a sailing adventure to a Jane Austen novel, complete with the intricate interplay of women in high society. If I wanted to read Jane Austen, I would be reading “Pride and Prejudice.” I really do want to get over the hump in that book because I’m certain the rest of the series is good. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/95 "2019-03-25T13:09:38Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#): > > I have never made it through that book. > I have tried on multiple occasions, figuring that there must be something spectacular about it that one only gets after finishing the whole thing, but I also lack the patience. > > The book is a one-tricky pony, with the slightly-off-kilter rambling tone and focus on the silliness of every single thing layering on as if the book were some sort of literary fugue with its theme surfacing forwards, backwards, and in different keys. > > No, I don’t have patience for “Catch-22”. I find it so strange that I agree with your summary of the book while totally disagreeing with your opinion of it. You are kind of right about there being a big reveal at the end, too. Although that is not the best part of the book, for me - I just really enjoy the sheer absurdity and how Yossarian creates and reacts to it. For those who dislike Steinbeck, I assume this stems from The Grapes of Wrath and Cannery Row (both of which are long, hard slogs) - if you haven’t read Of Mice and Men, do. It’s far more accessible and better-written (IMHO). And much shorter. As others have already mentioned, Wuthering Heights is the one for me. I’ve had a half-read copy in my nightstand for about 3 years now and am really struggling to find the motivation to continue with it. I even started again at one point as I had left it too long to remember what had happened. And even the second time through I’m finding it really hard to follow, in a way that Dickens or Hardy isn’t. Granted that a lot of posts in this thread (including mine) are about struggling with classics even as an adult, but a good chunk of the time it can be about trying to read them too young or with the wrong motivation (i.e. because you have to, not because you want to). And a common problem seems to be excessive verbiage - I can only assume editors weren’t really a thing until the 20th century, does anyone know this for a fact? ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/96 "2019-03-25T13:22:24Z")
I can’t tell you folks how wonderful it is to see all this disdain for _Catcher in the Rye_. I didn’t read it until I was in my 40s, and I gave up about two-thirds of the way through. As a reasonably well-read person, I’d come across plenty of references to it along the way, mostly going on about how Holden Caulfield sees through all the phoniness around him. What bullshit. He doesn’t see through _anything_. Anything he doesn’t like, he calls it phony. And I’ll join the line of Dopers who’d love to slap that smarmy fucker silly. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/97 "2019-03-25T13:27:54Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > My nomination is Hemingway. We had to read, I think it was _The Sun Also Rises_, in high school. Nothing happened in the entire book. There was no plot. There were some characters, but none of them were at all relatable, possibly because they never did anything. I never _had_ to read _The Sun Also Rises_, but read it anyway, sometime in my 30s. You’ve summarized my thoughts about the book quite succinctly. ---
**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, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/98 "2019-03-25T13:31:54Z")
> [@guestchaz](#): > > Not trying to give any love to Tommyknockers, burpo, but the book WAS better than the movie. \ Yikes! Thanks for the heads-up! ---
**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:** [March 25, 2019, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/99 "2019-03-25T13:36:14Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#): > > And since we are talking about “classic” books with scare quotes, I ought to mention the Aubrey-Maturin series of swashbuckler books by Patrick O’Brian. They are treated with almost as much reverence as C. S. Forester’s Hornblower series, but when I started working my way through them, I got stuck in the middle of book 2. It starts out well enough, but suddenly changes from a sailing adventure to a Jane Austen novel, complete with the intricate interplay of women in high society. If I wanted to read Jane Austen, I would be reading “Pride and Prejudice.” > > I really do want to get over the hump in that book because I’m certain the rest of the series is good. I really couldn’t get into Patrick O’Brian’s books. I LOVE C.S. Forester’s Hornblower novels, and have re-read them numerous times.\* But I can’t freakin’ stand O’ Brian’s books. I originally hadn’t bought them because even the paperbacks seemed ludicrously overpriced. after the movie came out, I borrowed the first three (chronologically) and worked my way through them. “Worked” is the right term. I found reading them a chore, whereas I sail through (pun intended) Forester with no effort. \*Forester wrote a great many other books, too, including some WWII fiction (along with a slightly fictionalized account of the _Bismarck_), some other Napoleonic period war fiction, one book about about an American Hornbloweresque captain (_The Captain from Connecticut_), some random historical and naval fiction (including, arguably, _the African Queen_), and two murder mysteries. I find it all readable, with the exception of his NON-fiction account of the Naval Encounters in the War of 1812. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/100 "2019-03-25T13:37:24Z")
> [@Dead\_Cat](#): > > For those who dislike Steinbeck, I assume this stems from The Grapes of Wrath and Cannery Row (both of which are long, hard slogs) - if you haven’t read Of Mice and Men, do. It’s far more accessible and better-written (IMHO). And much shorter. I’ve read all of the above. I thought _Grapes_ was worth the read, but it _is_ long, and given the subject matter, I can see how it would be a slog for a lot of readers. But when did _Cannery Row_ become _long_? I don’t expect everyone to like it as much as I did, but it’s quite short - IIRC it’s about the same length as _Of Mice and Men_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440.md?page=6)