post your unpopular literature opinions?

[MrShannon385]

Curly was the best character in mice an men

Well yes, and then she and her dreary lover/second-husband kill themselves like AK and La Bovary.

My thoughts exactly

Which Austen novel has the plucky heroine taming a troubled but wealthy man?

I think the plucky heroine being discussed was from a Thackeray novel, Becky Sharp from Vanity Fair IIRC.

I remember that on tv in the early 80s and saw a bit with a woman in wheelchair

It was very disturbing

Totally agree!

A little life drones on too much, most of the characters are interchangeable with no characterisation at all, no sense of place and full of unnecessary waffle about extravagant trips that have nothing whatsoever to do with the story.

I have no idea what all the fuss is about.

This is very therapeutic. Agree about The Alchemist (shite) Dickens (dull) and Wuthering Heights (not a romance novel)

I do have a soft spot for Catcher in the Rye and The Handmaid’s Tale, but I read them when I was a teenager & any subsequent discussed flaws are just cancelled out by nostalgia for me.

Children’s fiction from the 1920s to 60s is often much better quality of writing and stories than almost adult fiction published nowadays

I just found it completely unbelievable that 4 completely different personalities gelled enough to be best friends for life, after a year sharing a room in college.

Also, that these 4 people, working in different areas, all got to the top of their game and earned vast amounts so they could buy swanky flats in New York.

Similarly, Romeo and Juliet only makes sense as a satire. It is definitely not a tragedy.

Completely agree, ridiculous that they’d all succeeded so far and yet still seemed fixated on wallow in the fact they’d struggled plus they didn’t really seem to even like each other!

@monpetitchou so good isn’t it. I think I only know two people who’ve read it.

I don’t think so. Becky Sharp is most definitely not the rescuing kind.

Ah, I see, yes I was getting mixed up with another post upthread. I think only Pride and Prejudice would cover that description if we are talking of JA. But even then I wouldn't say she tames or rescues him, more that she realises he isn't a total arsehole.

Like The Old Curiosity Shop and Little Nell's death.

The Brontes were dreadful writers- mostly of dull, miserable stuff. However, 'Wuthering Heights' is ludicrous it is so over the top- full of cliched, exaggerated characters and storylines. I really can not bear the Brontes.

'Wuthering Heights' is ludicrous it is so over the top- full of cliched, exaggerated characters and storylines.

WH set the cliche, there was no cliche before WH. Is my impression, anyway. You need to read it like someone would have written in then. There was nothing like it before then. This is the original, the rest are cliche imitation.

What do you mean by ‘clichéd’ characters?

What do you mean by ‘clichéd’ characters?

I'd also be interested in hearing how the characters are clichéd.

Totally agree, for its time it’s unique, nobody was writing like that, least of all a woman.

I’m surprised up thread by anyone thinking that saying Wuthering Heights isn’t a romance is an unusual stance, it’s not at all, it’s not a romance at all it’s about jealousy, revenge and status.

Similarly, Romeo and Juliet only makes sense as a satire. It is definitely not a tragedy.

Only difference between tragedy and comedy is one ends in death, the other marriage. R&J is definitely a send up of the lofty neo-Petrarchan tradition of the likes of Dante and Petrarch. Romeo is a buffoon, and as for the Queen Mab bit ...

Same with Count Orsino. What an eejit!

I'd say R&J is tragedy. About idealistic innocent young people being killed by their parents' & families mistakes, pride & stupid feuds.

Indeed. The whole point is that both of them were initially incapable of appreciating each other’s virtues due to - spoiler alert - pride (Darcy) and prejudice (Elizabeth).

In fairness, though, Elizabeth bases her initial ‘prejudice’ against him partly on the valid enough grounds that he behaves rudely to everyone at the first Meryton assembly where they meet the Netherfield party and disparages her looks as ‘tolerable’, breaks up Jane and Bingley, and proposes to her in a shockingly arrogant manner, telling her he has fallen for her despite her low birth and badly-behaved family etc. It’s not just that she believes Wickham over him. He did behave like a complete wanker in her vicinity, which he acknowledges.