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Original poster

Classic or renowned novels that you didn't enjoy?

164 replies

AlpacaTheBags · 03/01/2022 13:19

I do generally enjoy the classics and I'm trying to read more of them this year but I finally read Jane Eyre last year and I didn't particularly enjoy it.

It took me 4 attempts to get through Pride and Prejudice, though I liked it in the end but I loved Sense and Sensibility and Mansfield Park and had no trouble getting through them.

I struggle with Hardy and I had to give up on Tess but perhaps I just haven't found the right Hardy for me.

Which classics didn't you enjoy?

OP posts:
quicknamechange4000 · 04/01/2022 12:56

The Great Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye. So forgettable. Found Tolkien tedious too.

I absolutely love Wuthering Heights and am surprised it has so many mentions here! The characters and dialogue gripped me the first time and I still love to re-read it. It never gets boring.

prettyteapotsplease · 04/01/2022 12:49

If I remember rightly, @Deathraystare Middlemarch has been named as a title which has broken many a book club and frankly I'm not surprised.

Deathraystare · 04/01/2022 09:53

@Viviennemary

Re Middlemarch - you and me both! It was a bookclub book. I tried it by audio but it was no better. Ditto Wuthering Heights. I wanted to slap both characters!

AdamRyan · 04/01/2022 08:07

To kill a mockingbird. I have read it several times and just find it very tedious indeed

War and peace - its just too long

Nathlash · 04/01/2022 07:58

@Melassa

Lord of the Flies I didn’t really like, I just found it a bit irritating. There were others of the same ilk I read at around the same age (so early teens), I think maybe Coral Island for example, I ploughed through them all but didn’t like any of them.

Joyce is a mixed bag, some I liked others (like Ulysses and a Portrait) I found a bit self indulgent.

Atwood I had a phase of reading them all, loved the Robber Bride for example, but then I got to Alias Grace and I couldn’t get on with it. I’ve actually bought the Handmaid’s Tale but have no inclination to pick it up.

I also bought Cloud Atlas, what a pile o’ shite! I think my tolerance for getting to the end of a book I’m not enjoying has definitely decreased. I also have the Hilary Mantel trilogy, I started on Wolf Hall as it was the first I found then couldn’t go backwards to Bringing up the Bodies. It’s still sitting there. I love the historical context but find the prose quite rambly and I no longer have the patience for that.

But Bring Up the Bodies is the sequel to Wolf Hall. You were reading in the right order.
ChessieFL · 04/01/2022 07:23

I hated Catcher In The Rye, but I was about 39 when I read it so not the target audience!

Hated Mansfield Park when I read it for A level as I thought it was really boring, but enjoyed it more when I read it a couple of years ago.

My controversial one is Agatha Christie. I’ve read three (and apparently three of the best) and I dread to think what the others were like. The prose was so simple and full of exclamation marks that I felt I was reading YA, and often the deductions were just lucky guesses. I think I’m about the only person in the world who doesn’t like her though! Maybe I should try again.

Linnet · 03/01/2022 22:20

I have never managed to read Jane Austen, I just find them boring and tedious and wish they wouldn’t pussyfoot around what they are trying to say all the time.

I manage to watch tv or film adaptations ok, but I just can’t read them.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 03/01/2022 21:58

That makes sense, @Woodlandwater.

Woodlandwater · 03/01/2022 21:53

Wasn't dickens written to be serialised rather than a novel? Which is why they are so tedious to plough through as a book?

I hated wuthering heights. Probably because I read it at 12 after Austen and wanted it all to be ballrooms in Bath and not slogging about on a moor. I do like the song though!

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 03/01/2022 21:44

I did reread Jane Eyre last year, and enjoyed it - but I can see what you are saying about the relationship between Jane and Mr Rochester, @Toomuchtoodo - though I do think it becomes more equal when he is blind and needs her, and she has more of her own power, due to,her experiences and her inheritance.

ChiefInspectorParker · 03/01/2022 21:20

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Toomuchtoodo · 03/01/2022 21:10

I read ‘Jane Eyre’ as an 11 year old and absolutely loved it, I could hardly breath I thought it was so romantic.

Reread it as an adult and felt that the Jane/Rochester relationship was sickeningly abusive; I hated him and was desperate for her to escape.

Nomoreusernames1244 · 03/01/2022 21:01

Wuthering heights. Had a boyfriend who loved it, i did try but hated it.

The hobbit and LOTR. It was recommended to me for years as “you like that sort of thing”. Boring. Boring. Boring. Pages and pages describing one tiny detail.

DeckardK · 03/01/2022 20:58

Wow, I love Wuthering Heights - the writing, the story...the misery! And Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities is a wonderful book, and A Christmas Carol is the best story of all. My favourite book is Bram Stoker's Dracula so I am struggling with a lot of your answers Grin

How anyone can enjoy Mansfield Park though I will never know...

Glowtastic · 03/01/2022 19:51

@PersonaNonGarter

Madame Bovary - a book so dull that I immediately judge anyone who likes it.

The Magus - fortunately, this seems to have fallen out of fashion but it just isn’t worth it.

I not only had to read Madame bloody Bovary I had to watch the film version of it and write numerous essays on it, in French, for French a level!!
JaneJeffer · 03/01/2022 19:49

That was for @SimonedeBeauvoirscat!

JaneJeffer · 03/01/2022 19:48

My heart sinks any time someone asks for a funny book recommendation and they get that!

WeeFae · 03/01/2022 19:47

Did not enjoy The Secret History by Donn Tartt, think I missed the "wow" about it.

SimonedeBeauvoirscat · 03/01/2022 19:47

I’m afraid so! 😂

JaneJeffer · 03/01/2022 19:45

I think we're vastly outnumbered @SimonedeBeauvoirscat Grin

SimonedeBeauvoirscat · 03/01/2022 18:59

@JaneJeffer @Ohyesiam @Luredbyapomegranate I’ve found my people! Let’s form a fight club to battle the 99% (it seems like) of MN who love that bloody book.

Luredbyapomegranate · 03/01/2022 18:50

@SimonedeBeauvoirscat

Ooh here’s a controversial one: I absolutely hated I Capture The Castle which I think judging by previous threads is one of MN’s most widely loved novels. Anyone else or just me?!
Me! I always just thought I read it too late, but found it utterly dull. Cazelet chronicles much better.

I think G Gatsby is massively overrated, but Tender is the Night very underrated.

Wuthering Heights annoying as hell.

I like most Austin though, am gobsmacked at people saying they struggled to get through P&P, it’s such an easy read and Eliz B such a fantastic character.

I liked Dubliners which no one else seems to..

StrongerOrWeaker · 03/01/2022 18:46

Is wolf hall a classic? Will it stand the test of time? For what it's worth I didn't enjoy the trilogy.

I agree with other posters about Dostoyevsky and Conrad. I can't say I loved the master and margarita either.

Not keen on:
Thomas Mann
Kafka
Hermann Hess
James Joyce

Didn't enjoy catcher in the rye but wonder if I was too old when I read it?

Didn't like Fear and loathing in las Vegas

Chemenger · 03/01/2022 18:36

I cannot stand Jane Eyre, both the character and the overlong ridiculous book. War and Peace, as PPs have said was fine if the war bits were skipped.
I tried Wolf Hall but hated it, just not engaging and couldn’t keep track of the characters.
Have never got past the first few chapters of any Dickens, just soooooo dull and drawn out.
I read a lot of Hardy and Russian novelists as a teenager, but now I can’t be bothered with depressing stuff. Also read Tolkien and a lot of science fiction, none of which I can tolerate now. I’ve read all of Jane Austen multiple times, they are my go to comfort read.

Ohyesiam · 03/01/2022 18:27

Love in a time of Cholera.
Give me strength. I only persevered because I was on a train in India and had read everything else.