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Original poster

I bet this has been done before, but what classics/modern classics have really left you baffled as to why they're so popular?

114 replies

Twinklemegan · 21/06/2008 22:56

Brave New World for me

Wuthering Heights to an extent, though I might need to try it again

I know there are others, but can't think at the moment.

OP posts:
eemie · 22/06/2008 18:17

Wuthering Heights - hated it.
Middlemarch - why do people rave about it? It seems like two or three separate books barely stitched together.
The God of Small Things
The Bone People

StellaWasADiver · 22/06/2008 18:11

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Miggsie · 22/06/2008 18:06

You heathens!
Wuthering Heights is the best book ever....!

But I hate Dickens...much prefer Wilkie Collins or Thomas Hardy.

Catcher in the Rye leaves me cold.

Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintnenance...hmmm, jury is out for me.

Scott Fitzgerald and James Joyce both baffle me.

Name of the Rose also left me with a non warm feeling.

allgonebellyup · 22/06/2008 17:58

awww i thought the Alchemist was sweet, but then i read it when i was 14 and didnt even know it was meant to be popular then..

mamablue · 22/06/2008 17:37

Time Traveller's wife is not a classic - you are right. I just remember being so disapointed by all the hype when I read it but no it is not a classic.

Most disapointing classic for me was Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

MaryAnnSingleton · 22/06/2008 17:34

Alchemist is in no way a classic apart from being classic crap

Pruners · 22/06/2008 17:33

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nkf · 22/06/2008 17:32

Can something as recent as Captain Correlli's Mandarin be a classic? Or The Time Traveller's Wife for that matter.

MaryAnnSingleton · 22/06/2008 17:32

Wuthering Heights too

smallwhitecat · 22/06/2008 17:29

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MaryAnnSingleton · 22/06/2008 17:26

Alchemist - total,total wank and drivel ans shite - can you tell that I don't get it ?!

mamablue · 22/06/2008 17:23

The Time Travellers Wife - just could not get it!

poppy34 · 22/06/2008 16:27

white teeth

cadelaide · 22/06/2008 16:27

McEwan always pops up on these threads and I just think he writes beautifully.

Love him.

kaz33 · 22/06/2008 16:25

Trollope - barchester towers yeuch
Salman Rushdie
The Kite Runner - formulaic
Iain Banks - other than The Wasp Factory

Greedygirl · 22/06/2008 16:21

Also after Bleak House was on the TV I really tried to get into Charles Dickens and failed miserably. Too complex for my weary brain .

Greedygirl · 22/06/2008 16:20

I know it is not a classic but very popular and I just found it so clunky (sp?) - The Island by Victoria Hislop.

JulesJules · 22/06/2008 16:10

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pofaced · 21/06/2008 23:50

Donna Tartt- just so mediocre
Catcher in the Rye was zeitgeisty so it was ok than but why would anyone re-read it?

Personally I loathed Life of Pi: I hate those male books trying to be clever but never actually entertaining/ engaing you with the story.

I liked Atonement but again though it very male: no woman would actually have let things go on so long (even though sha was a woman) ie "rape' victim would have sorte dout sister much earlier on. It's one of those overwritten stories like any John Irving stuff.

But I love Middlemarch

Aitch · 21/06/2008 23:50

oh no i liked that first donna tartt v much. raced through it. (but as an adventure thriller rather than littyrature, iykwim?)

colditz · 21/06/2008 23:48

I found the MIll On The Floss utterly turgid.

Califrau · 21/06/2008 23:42

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Crunchie · 21/06/2008 23:39

OH well I'm fucked then I am jewish

I managed about 30 pages before I simply gave up on that ine!!

ScottishMummy · 21/06/2008 23:37

hated lovely bones despite its rave reviews.still do

stillwaiting · 21/06/2008 23:36

I don't know . I am relgious and it is the story of St. Peter and Jesus with embelishments.