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

[Tortington]

catcher in the rye

piss easy read. fucking pointless

[Tortington]

tess - hated it

mary barton - hated it

[Cadelaide]

Any Jane Austen.

There, I said it.

[Tortington]

ooooh brave

[notnowbernard]

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]

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

[Cadelaide]

oops, 12th night, I always do that

[Cadelaide]

....but anyway, was it local?

[MrsMcJnr]

Mansfield Park - sooo borring!

[MinkyBorage]

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

[LeylaKier]

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]

Bishop's Palace in Well cad.

[OrmIrian]

Or even Wells!

[JulesJules]

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.

[Leln]

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

[scottishmummy]

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

[Libra]

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]

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]

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

[Cadelaide]

Now you see I love Ian McEwan.

[Cadelaide]

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

[KERALA1]

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]

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]

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