Page 2 | Classics you couldn't finish

Tambatamba · 2023-09-05T04:07:24+00:00

For me, Dracula. As compelling as it was, I had to stop reading it because I found it so sad and depressing.

CrossPurposes · 07/09/2023 14:12

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 05/09/2023 07:45

Daniel Deronda - never made it past the introduction
Most of Dickens apart from David Copperfield. Too verbose, annoying with his grotesque characters and his attitudes to women, esp the fallen variety.
Wuthering Heights
Looked at the length of Moby Dick and thought 'Nope. not reading all that about a whale, ta.'
Hardy. So bleeding miserable.

Middlemarch - the TV adaptation is on IPlayer and highly recommend that.

I've tried and failed to read Middlemarch but the adaptation was wonderful.

inverness123 · 07/09/2023 12:09

Least talented of three of the most talented writers of all time! And she died first, so had less chance to prove herself.

EmilyBrontesGhost · 07/09/2023 11:57

RoadLess · 07/09/2023 10:40

I think the fascinating thing is how three such different talents emerged out of the same childhood experiences/immersion in the same obsessive childhood worldbuilding, story-spinning games (that all three were still playing well into adulthood). Anne is more of a social realist and protest novelist, Emily is a Gothic novelist who’s not that interested in character in the traditional sense, Charlotte is a romantic feminist who writes brilliantly well about suppressed passion and rage.

I still always desperately want to know what all three would have written had they lived longer, and used to dream in my teens of finding Emily’s lost second novel, possibly destroyed either by her before her death or Charlotte afterwards. Maybe Anne’s later writings are hardest to predict. I think if she’d become as famous as Charlotte, she might have written brilliantly about the very new world she would have entered into.

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"used to dream in my teens of finding Emily’s lost second novel, possibly destroyed either by her before her death or >> Charlotte << afterwards"

EmilyBrontesGhost · 07/09/2023 11:53

inverness123 · 07/09/2023 10:14

I agree! Why do Charlotte and Emily get all the glory? #teamanne all the way.

One thing I hated about that recent film about Emily was that it was all Emily is one with passion and soul! Charlotte is bossy and controlling and Anne is a total non-entity. Surely you can celebrate the genius of one sister without having to make out that the others weren’t any good. I would say Emily is the least talented of the three as a novelist, though I quite like her poetry.

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Least talented . . .

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 07/09/2023 11:17

my English teacher listened to me slagging off Fanny Price and then asked me why I had so little compassion for an abused child - brought me up short

That has immediately explained to me Fanny's behaviour - her shyness, lack of confidence and her acceptance of how her cousins and aunt treat her.

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 07/09/2023 11:15

Not sure if it's a classic as such, but Wolf Hall. I have tried and tried and tried. Everything about it says that it should be right up my street but I can't do it

When WH was first published I defended it and the use of 'he' on Amazon to the point I was asked if I was actually Hilary Mantel 😆When I finished it for the first ime I have the unnerving sensation for a minute or two that I was in Cromwell's head and immediately started reading it again.

The Mirror and the Light, OTOH, was much longer than it needed to be. My theory is that HM didn't want to write the ending she and the rest of us knew was coming.

ErrolTheDragon · 07/09/2023 11:05

Villette is the best novel of all time!

Except for the most bloody annoying and unsatisfactory ending(s) of all time. I slightly wish I hadn't finished it!

MrsSkylerWhite · 07/09/2023 10:49

1984

RoadLess · 07/09/2023 10:48

Oh, and I only recently saw the Brontë film To Walk Invisible, which I thought was brilliantly cast, especially Finn Atkinson as Charlotte and Chloe Pirrie as Emily.

RoadLess · 07/09/2023 10:40

inverness123 · 07/09/2023 10:14

I agree! Why do Charlotte and Emily get all the glory? #teamanne all the way.

One thing I hated about that recent film about Emily was that it was all Emily is one with passion and soul! Charlotte is bossy and controlling and Anne is a total non-entity. Surely you can celebrate the genius of one sister without having to make out that the others weren’t any good. I would say Emily is the least talented of the three as a novelist, though I quite like her poetry.

Show quote history

I think the fascinating thing is how three such different talents emerged out of the same childhood experiences/immersion in the same obsessive childhood worldbuilding, story-spinning games (that all three were still playing well into adulthood). Anne is more of a social realist and protest novelist, Emily is a Gothic novelist who’s not that interested in character in the traditional sense, Charlotte is a romantic feminist who writes brilliantly well about suppressed passion and rage.

I still always desperately want to know what all three would have written had they lived longer, and used to dream in my teens of finding Emily’s lost second novel, possibly destroyed either by her before her death or Charlotte afterwards. Maybe Anne’s later writings are hardest to predict. I think if she’d become as famous as Charlotte, she might have written brilliantly about the very new world she would have entered into.

RoadLess · 07/09/2023 10:32

MissLucyEyelesbarrow · 07/09/2023 08:50

The Tenant of Wildfowl Hall is excellent, but Villette is even better.

The people who prefer Wuthering Heights to Jane Eyre need to be rounded up and helped.

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Villette is the best novel of all time!

Ok, of the 19thc in English.

Anyone who thinks it inferior to Jane Eyre immediately forfeits my respect.

inverness123 · 07/09/2023 10:14

EmilyBrontesGhost · 06/09/2023 22:56

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was indeed a masterpiece.

Often forgotten and overlooked, sadly.

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I agree! Why do Charlotte and Emily get all the glory? #teamanne all the way.

One thing I hated about that recent film about Emily was that it was all Emily is one with passion and soul! Charlotte is bossy and controlling and Anne is a total non-entity. Surely you can celebrate the genius of one sister without having to make out that the others weren’t any good. I would say Emily is the least talented of the three as a novelist, though I quite like her poetry.

MissLucyEyelesbarrow · 07/09/2023 08:50

EmilyBrontesGhost · 06/09/2023 22:56

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was indeed a masterpiece.

Often forgotten and overlooked, sadly.

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The Tenant of Wildfowl Hall is excellent, but Villette is even better.

The people who prefer Wuthering Heights to Jane Eyre need to be rounded up and helped.

EmmaPaella · 07/09/2023 00:08

BeautyGoesToBenidorm · 06/09/2023 18:39

The Hunchback of Notre Dame. What a slog that was.

I didn’t finish this either. Ditto Les Miserables.

Bunnyannesummers · 06/09/2023 23:02

Lord of the thing rings. Never made it past the birthday party

PollyannaWhittier · 06/09/2023 22:58

Wuthering heights took me several attempts. (I like Jane Eyre, @Lovecleansheets you might be on to something !)

I had Oliver Twist out of the library for over a term in about y10, the librarian wouldn't let me return it until I finished it

I read the first few pages of Mrs Dalloway three times, still didn't have a clue what was going on, and gave up !

EmilyBrontesGhost · 06/09/2023 22:56

clowniform · 06/09/2023 19:32

I think that the world is divided into two sets of people: those who prefer ‘Jane Eyre’ and those whose souls sing with ‘Wuthering Heights’.

WHAT?! #teamAnne

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was indeed a masterpiece.

Often forgotten and overlooked, sadly.

EmilyBrontesGhost · 06/09/2023 22:52

Lovecleansheets · 06/09/2023 19:05

I think that the world is divided into two sets of people: those who prefer ‘Jane Eyre’ and those whose souls sing with ‘Wuthering Heights’.

I’m a ‘Jane Eyre’ girl.

Loved ‘Middlemarch’, ‘Tess’ and ‘Far From the Madding Crowd’, all Austen (my English teacher listened to me slagging off Fanny Price and then asked me why I had so little compassion for an abused child - brought me up short) and ‘Bleak House’ makes me howl for Lord Dedlock as well as Jo. I find ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ oppressive.

But how I despise (and couldn’t finish) ‘Moby Dick’, ‘Catch 22’, Tolkien and anything by an Amis. Misogynistic bores. In fact, books by women are more fun. Try Nancy Mitford and Stella Gibbons: so much more cheerful!

I think that the world is divided into two sets of people: those who prefer ‘Jane Eyre’ and those whose souls sing with ‘Wuthering Heights’.

It was more about doomed souls really.

I’m a ‘Jane Eyre’ girl.

🤐

MargotBamborough · 06/09/2023 22:50

EmilyBrontesGhost · 06/09/2023 22:46

OMG . . .

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😂

FloatyBoaty · 06/09/2023 22:46

Middlemarch
Ulysses
Frankenstein

Studied English literature at uni and work in a literary related field. Took me a long time to realize that books are like people- you cannot possibly get on with or be interested by all of them and what they have to say.

EmilyBrontesGhost · 06/09/2023 22:46

MargotBamborough · 06/09/2023 18:33

Wuthering Shites.

OMG . . .

MaudGone · 06/09/2023 22:43

Read all of Hardy's novels, but "Tess" was the only one I struggled to get through. Baffled by its popularity.

Deadringer · 06/09/2023 22:43

Oh god Wolf Hall, I had forgotten about that one! I really wanted to love it but its so repetitive and dull. I loved Catch 22 and Dracula. I did enjoy Jane Eyre, it's a great novel but just a little bit joyless imo.

Oldermum84 · 06/09/2023 22:23

Another Catch 22.

Loved Dracula.

BlowDryRat · 06/09/2023 21:54

I enjoyed most of Dickens, but Hard Times... why? Unrelentingly depressing and really quite boring too.

I've tried a couple of George Eliot books. Nothing happens.