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

[EverySingleStar]

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

[YeahBut]

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.

[SchnitzelVonKrumm]

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

[TheFoosa]

another for Lord of The Rings, just dreadful

[Itsjustafleshwound]

Lord of the Rings
Vanity Fair

[GetOrfMoiLand]

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

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

[overthemill]

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

[CJCregg]

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

[CJCregg]

How odd, itsjustafleshwound

[Eowyn]

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

[OrmIrian]

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.

[OrmIrian]

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

[Itsjustafleshwound]

CJC - good taste

[CJCregg]

I'm not wild about Hardy, either.

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

[francagoestohollywood]

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

[dawntigga]

on the road - jack kerouac

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

Don'tGetMeStartedOnThisICouldBeHereAllDayTiggaxx

[OrmIrian]

Fark! CJC what do you like?

[pofacedandproud]

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

[Thredworm]

It is bollocks though? Gothic bickering.

[GetOrfMoiLand]

I love Vanity Fair, though, it is so modern. Love the fact the 'heroine' is such a grasping bitch as well.

[alana39]

Dickens - soooo depressing - I know London was grim then. At least Vanity Fair's funny.

[thumbwitch]

I liked the Time Traveller's Wife but agree with a lot of the others:
Wordsworth - dreadful
Hardy - got a few pages into Tess and gave up
Moby Dick - no chance.
Catcher in the Rye - never again, wish I hadn't bothered
The Famished Road (Ben Okri) - FAB first couple of chapters and then misery throughout. Took me 2 goes, many years apart, to finish it and then I wished I hadn't bothered.
Wuthering Heights was a chore
Love in the Time of Cholera I just didn't quite get
Labyrinth by Kate Mosse - dreadful.
Any Amis, no.
Dickens - too much like hard work, although I have read Oliver Twist, and made a couple of attempts at Great Expectations (always get bored when Pip(?) grows up)

Catch 22 - I read that as a "loo book" - and it was all right! Not great, you couldn't get hooked on it, but doing it like that wasn't too bad. I did end up feeling dreadfully sorry for Yossarian.

I like all 3 LOTR but never liked the Hobbit, for some reason.

I like the Austens in general but hate Emma (the character) and am not overkeen on the book because of it.

[MadBadandCoveredinSequins]

The Hobbit.

But the Great Gatsby is one of my favourite books - whenever anyone starts a "what shall I read next" thread I always recommend it!

[UnquietDad]

Norwegian Wood - I found it unbearable.