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Original poster

Admit it - what's the classic book that everyone raves about but you despise?

192 replies

EverySingleStar · 21/09/2009 00:57

I probably have more than one but The Great Gatsby is definitely up there. shudder violently Shall add more later

OP posts:
pofacedandproud · 21/09/2009 09:32

Wuthering Heights is not sentimental! Blimey, one thing you cannot call it.

OrmIrian · 21/09/2009 09:30

Fark! CJC what do you like?

dawntigga · 21/09/2009 09:30

on the road - jack kerouac

By the end of page 2 I wanted to slap him stupid for being an idiot.

Don'tGetMeStartedOnThisICouldBeHereAllDayTiggaxx

francagoestohollywood · 21/09/2009 09:29

Is the lovely bones considered a classic? Blimey! I didn't like it at all.

CJCregg · 21/09/2009 09:28

I'm not wild about Hardy, either.

Love in the Time of Cholera
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Martin Amis (pah)

Itsjustafleshwound · 21/09/2009 09:25

CJC - good taste

OrmIrian · 21/09/2009 09:25

And Moby Dick. One of the few 'classics' that I just couldn't finish.

OrmIrian · 21/09/2009 09:24

That anyone dislikes George Eliot.... Middlemarch is one of my favourite novels ever! Love all the Victorian classics. And Jane Austen

Great Gatsby is very meh I must admit.

TTW is bollocks but I wouldn't call it a classic anyway.

Yes to Catcher in the Rye - tedious and incomprehensible IMO.

Eowyn · 21/09/2009 09:24

Wuthering Heights. Biggest disappointment... romance???

CJCregg · 21/09/2009 09:23

How odd, itsjustafleshwound

CJCregg · 21/09/2009 09:22

Lord of the Rings (all Tolkien)
Vanity Fair (I tried, dammit ...)

overthemill · 21/09/2009 09:22

all dickens, wuthering heights, all brontes actually and austin (though love all the films, thank god for them)

GetOrfMoiLand · 21/09/2009 09:22

Another vote for Wuthering Heights. Tedious crap. I cannot bear it.

Also The English Patient. Could not get into it for love nor money.

Itsjustafleshwound · 21/09/2009 09:19

Lord of the Rings
Vanity Fair

TheFoosa · 21/09/2009 09:17

another for Lord of The Rings, just dreadful

SchnitzelVonKrumm · 21/09/2009 09:17

Moby Dick, dear god I thought it would never end.

White Teeth, The Corrections both needed a good editor --common to lots of very hyped modern novels, I find.

A dear friend once told me she couldn't like anyone who didn't love Captain Correlli's Mandolin, which I LOATHED with unusual passion. Have never had the heart to tell her

YeahBut · 21/09/2009 09:15

Lord of The Rings, The Hobbit et al. DH loves them. He made me sit through one of the films to try and get me interested enough to give the books another go. That's three hours of my life that I want back.
Wuthering Heights - sentimental bollocks.

LouLovesAeroplaneJelly · 21/09/2009 09:11

Great Gatsby. I blame Mrs Gilshenen for that at school. Oh and Sense and Sensibility.

pofacedandproud · 21/09/2009 09:11

Love Mill on the Floss! You probably needed to be a bit older to read it.

pofacedandproud · 21/09/2009 09:10

Little Women. Couldn't bear the sentimental bollocks. And oh yes Lord of the Rings. Turgid.

MarthaFarquhar · 21/09/2009 08:55

Ulysses. Big, yes; clever, yes; interesting? hell, no.

And White Teeth. Yes, London is a bit multicultural. Thanks for noticing.

flimflammum · 21/09/2009 08:50

The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot. Admittedly I was about 14 when made to read it for school. I loved lots of other classic lit, but this bored me to... well, boredom really. I think the teacher thought that just because it was about children, young people would like it. We didn't.

Rhian82 · 21/09/2009 08:50

Awww, I Capture The Castle is one of my all-time faves, and I love Cold Comfort Farm! Agree about George Eliot though, detest Silas Marner.

WidowWadman · 21/09/2009 08:43

Lord of the Rings. Tried several times, including reading it out loud to my flatmate and vice versa, because we both struggled, and the audiobook. Never got past page 80.

I accept its significance, but still find it really really boring.

Oh, and I can't stand Wordsworth. The Prelude is just tosh.

moondog · 21/09/2009 08:35

I capture the castle

(So bloody what?)

Captain Corelli's Mandoline

(I'm angry with myself for wasting those hours of my life)