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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:
Tortington · 24/09/2009 22:04

catcher in the rye

piss easy read. fucking pointless

Tortington · 24/09/2009 22:07

tess - hated it

mary barton - hated it

Cadelaide · 24/09/2009 22:10

Any Jane Austen.

There, I said it.

Tortington · 24/09/2009 22:11

ooooh brave

notnowbernard · 24/09/2009 22:13

The Great Gatsby - started a thread on here about it on whether to persist. Had to abandon, just could not get into it at all

Cadelaide · 24/09/2009 22:15

Oooh, Orm, where was that? My niece played Olivia, may have been the same one?

Cadelaide · 24/09/2009 22:17

oops, 12th night, I always do that

Cadelaide · 24/09/2009 22:19

....but anyway, was it local?

MrsMcJnr · 24/09/2009 22:33

Mansfield Park - sooo borring!

MinkyBorage · 24/09/2009 23:34

yes custy, my sentiments exactly re Catcher in the rye, : piss easy read. fucking pointless

LeylaKier · 25/09/2009 00:20

Has anyone mentioned The Hunchback of Notre Dame yet? Esmerelda in the Disney version was feisty. In the original she was a typical cardboard sappy Victorian pretend female. As for Cossette in Les Miserables - same diff. Women written by Victorian men (cue Tess etc) NOT very believable.

OrmIrian · 25/09/2009 10:13

Bishop's Palace in Well cad.

OrmIrian · 25/09/2009 10:13

Or even Wells!

JulesJules · 25/09/2009 11:19

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Leln · 25/09/2009 19:23

Anything by iris Murdoch....
The Sea, The Sea is completely impenetrable whilst The Bell is like religious community meets chick lit.
Arghh

scottishmummy · 25/09/2009 19:30

anything by ian McEwan i find his writing turgid.like a literary quagmire

Libra · 25/09/2009 19:45

Sons and Lovers (far too much fondling of flowers)

Wuthering Heights (pull yourself together!)

Mansfield Park. I adore anything else by Jane, but loathe Fanny Price.

Romanarama · 25/09/2009 19:45

I love most of these. But the Island was awful - why on Earth was that a bestseller? Like all that crap by Nicholas Sparkes.

But War and Peace has one of the worst endings in literary history imo. Tolstoy went a bit mad towards the end. I don't like Anna K much either, but Ivan Ilyich is brilliant, and many of the other short stories.

Dostoevsky is a genius and I won't hear a word said against......

fishflange · 25/09/2009 19:51

Anything by a Bronte, Dickens, Austen....and plays by that bloke from Stratford. Boring.
Yup and I have an English degree dontcha know.

Cadelaide · 25/09/2009 20:39

Now you see I love Ian McEwan.

Cadelaide · 25/09/2009 20:43

With you on Dostoyevsky Romanarama, "Crime and Punishment" made me sweat with fear.

KERALA1 · 25/09/2009 20:45

Struggle with Dickens except A Christmas Carol

Also like other couldnt get into Catcher in Rye.

To those that don't like Hardy have you tried Far From the Madding Crowd? Finally a woman with abit of spark after all the victims.

OrmIrian · 25/09/2009 20:48

kerala - I enjoy Hardy but agree with you about his women. I felt really sorry for Tess - she was actually quite normal, not a hysterical freak like Sue Bridehead, or a monster of selfishness like the woman whose name I can't remember in the book whose name I also can't remember about Egdon Heath (see I really love Hardy ). But she had to get punished for being normal. Bathsheba Everdene is just right.

OrmIrian · 25/09/2009 20:49

But I love DIckens. When I settle down with a big fat Dickens it's like sitting down to a long lovely leisurely meal.

StewieGriffinsMom · 25/09/2009 20:57

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