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

catcher in the rye

piss easy read. fucking pointless

tess - hated it

mary barton - hated it

Any Jane Austen.

There, I said it.

ooooh brave

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

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

oops, 12th night, I always do that

....but anyway, was it local?

Mansfield Park - sooo borring!

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

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.

Bishop's Palace in Well cad.

Or even Wells!

Catcher in the Rye - rubbish, much prefer Franny and Zooey.

Catch 22.

Vanity Fair - just awful unreadable tosh

Anything by Charles Dickens. Wilkie Collins far superior imo.

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

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

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.

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......

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

Now you see I love Ian McEwan.

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

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.

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.

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