so which 'classics' have you never read?

[iwastooearlytobeayummymummy]

For me it's Wuthering Heights and the Russian stuff: War and Peace and Anna Karenina
Also never read Madame Bovary, but I'm sure I've started it before now
I love Margaret Attwood but have not got round to the Hand Maids Tale yet ( but it is beside the bed)

Can't get into Moby Dick either. Tried a few times. Same with Dickens, James Joyce's Ulysses (enjoyed Dubliners though), can't stand DH Lawrence...

Love the Russians and Jane Austen and the Bronte Sisters.

Not read at all:
Tolstoy
James Joyce
George Eliot
Silmarillion

Tried and failed:
Moby Dick
Les Miserables
Don Quixote

Read some/few:
Dickens - he's turgid.
Shakespeare - mostly as stories of the plays rather than the plays themselves

Read but can't stand:
D.H.Lawrence
Thomas Hardy
Catcher in the Rye

Read but not keen:
Brontes, especially Withering Heights
the Hobbit (but loved LOTR)
Some Dostoyevsky
Some Solzhenitsyn

I like Austen, Vanity Fair, The Three Musketeers and lots of other classics.
Am sure I've missed out loads that I haven't read.

Also can't stand Austen, I reckon you're either a Bronte or an Austen person

Have never managed to get through any DH Lawrence as I find his style so ponderously awful. I find him very interesting but can't get into his writing.

Tried and failed to read middlemarch and Madame Bovary.
Read some Dickens and won't read any more.Ditto Dh Lawrence and Graham Greene
Read War and Peace and found it really disappointing/annoying- it's like he got bored at the end and decided to wrap it all up in a couple of pages.

Grapes Of Wrath- tried to read for a level - ended up writing my essay on the first couple of pages and still haven't read any more

I loved the Brontes as a teenager, especially Wuthering Heights - but found it disturbing and hard work when I reread it a couple of years ago. Have read tess of the Durbevilles a few times and really enjoy that (though very sad), and also love Oscar Wilde.

I confess though I have tried several times, I've never finished any Dickens. I find him soooooo dreary and long winded! Never read any Anthony Trolloppe which looks similar in huge casts! Love Jane Austen on screen but it's all a bit too smug to read.

Finally just read South Riding and I did enjoy that a lot.

I did some lit at uni but got stuck after Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina and didn't finish the rest. Also did "The Madwoman in the Attic" as themes so read some great books like Jane Eyre, The Shutter of Snow, The Yellow Wallpaper.

My pet hate from university literature was Toni Morrison. I can't stand writers trying too hard to be clever.

I hate Dickens - was forced through Hard Times for A level and that was enough, thanks! Love them on TV though. I have also steered clear of George Eliot and other Victorians.
Tried and failed at Jane Eyre (although got on better with other Brontes) and LOTR. Multiple fails at this, as I really wanted to like it, but never managed to drag myself past early volume two.
Love the Russians, Jane Austen and most English stuff from Hardy onwards.

Hardly any Dickens and no Tolkein.

What constantly surprises me whenever I read any of The Greats I read as a teenager is what on earth I got from them the first time round. I remember finding Austen really dry and now its very funny, and Zola was just a shocking and good read whereas now he's shocking and moving, but without life experience (not just motherhood, but age) I can't imagine how I 'got' Hardy or Madame Bovary.

I have just re read Jude for the first time since I was a teenager and just wanted to slap practically everone in it!

For me it's the Russians-actually I dont much like literature in translation at all so Madame Bovary is also on my list.I no longer feel any obligation to 'make' myself read anything just because it is a 'classic'.I love Dickens,most of Jane Austen,all Shakespeare,too many poets to mention etc.I dont like Middlemarch though I have read it.I love Lord of the Rings though I dont see it as part of the classic canon of Eng Lit.

fwiw I like both Jane Austen and the Brontes-well WH and JE anyway.I also like Emily's poetry.I like some Hardy but gosh he's miserable[except Under the Greenwood Tree]Wilkie Collins is readable and so is Trollope.

Wuthering Heights and Great Expectations.

Little Women was the most horrendously boring thing I have ever attempted to read in my life.

Couldn't stand Wuthering Heights. Have read some Dickens (when I had the time), loved Tess of D's.

Was musing over Madame Bovary in Oxfam bookshop on Saturday, but picked up Moonstone instead as I loved Woman in White.

Can't read Shakespeare - love it in the theatre though.

x

Haven't read as many as I'd like but they do tend to seem quite daunting and need a level of concentration I just don't seem to be able to muster anymore!

Favourites though are:

• Woman in White
• Vanity Fair (read it across about three months on a long commute and totally got into it - don't take a break though as I think it then becomes impossible!)
• War & Peace - one of my Mums favourites, she used to keep a handwritten note beside her to help her work out who was who though.. I struggled through without but that would have really helped!

For those of you fancying a slightly strange twist on the classics, you should try Jasper Ffordes Thursday Next novels - hard to describe but truly wonderful to read!

'I am ashamed of the books I haven;t read. i am particularly ashamed of the books i haven;t read but still wrote essays on in my English Literature finals at university..........'

That's really made me laugh. I read English, too and it was amazing how you could get away without reading many of the texts. We didn't have finals, though, so maybe mine is not quite as an impressive achievement as yours, seeker.

I've never read much Dickens - he never really appealed when I was younger, but does now. And I've never read much Austen - she still doesn't really grab me - I'd much rather read other 18th Century novels - they're much more entertaining, imo.

I love Hardy. I love the misery

I've read quite a few classics but there are still loads I haven't. I hate Jane Austen....zzzzzz.....Oh and Tolkein. As soon as I got to Tom Bombadil in LOTR I stopped cos it was making me want to gouge my own eyes out with a spoon.

I keep promising myself I will read Tess of the D'urbervilles, Jane Eyre and Midnight's Children but they're still on the 'to be read' pile....

This year. Definitely.

My favourite classics are 1984 (did this for GCSE many moons ago and still love it) and Rebecca. Awesome book. Read it last year for the first time and wished I'd read it years earlier.

ps - did The Handmaid's Tale for A level and loved it, but the teacher was a huge Atwood fan and I think that helped. She was a great teacher.

I've only read one other Atwood - The Blind Assassin. Okay I s'pose. Started Alias Grace, couldn't finish it.

I quite like Dickens in small doses, which of course was the way they were meant to be read, as chapters/episodes in penny dreadfuls. Little Dorrit is my favourite.

I did English Lit at uni although I was a swot and read the books agree it was possible to get by without reading many if you are good at writing and can present information in an interesting way.

That said, I've never read a Dickens from start to finish, I agree he gets a bit boring.

I love Jane Austin though.

I have read and learned a lot about writers; and their techniques. (Tolstoy was on BBC TV last night......not a laugh a minute but a great man)

So I suppose I am more into writers than their books.

I did struggle with Solgis "Gulag" (sounds rude doesn,t it?) Great man great book.

We have seen the Musical Oliver about 4 times. (Dickens is great for TV)
some think that makes him a second rater. Dont agree.

To my shame I never won the battle with Shakespeares prose. (It would be daft to say he wasnt the top geezer....even if Bacon dabbled a little.)

Two cannibals at a literary breakfast. One said I cant tell if this is shakespeare orBacon. The other replied " Its plucking tasty; just eat
the sodding stuff.".....William will be turning in his grave.

Agree with you about Dickens. I LOVE his books - they are really atmospheric. I have read all of them now (with the exception of Nicholas Nickleby which I have).

I have read quite a lot of the classics now - the ones I haven't read are the ones I am not interested in (the Bronte sisters being at the top of my list).

Love Eliot but never finished Mill on the Floss - I think it's because I want to slap Maggie. However, she'll have to wait her turn behind EMMA who I'm afraid has put me off Austen (and me an English graduate too).

Not good on my long Russians but I've read a fair amount of Chekov (and Ibsen). DH has finally got me into Dickens.

Much preferred Jane Eyre to Wuthering Heights.