What "Classic" disappointed you?

[Kenn_Baker]

I was on this classic reading kick. I decided to read all the classics before I die. "Moby Dick" Changed my mind. Has anyone else tried to read this with a resulting disappointment? The language is difficult and i swear if the actual plot had been stuck to, it would be a 100 page book. There are so many side notes about fish, their behavior, their habitats, their favorite television show etc.... that I completely lost interest. It feels like you are reading a biology book for high school.

What "Classic" disappointed you?

[Gannon]

I was on this classic reading kick. I decided to read all the classics before I die. "Moby Dick" Changed my mind. Has anyone else tried to read this with a resulting disappointment? The language is difficult and i swear if the actual plot had been stuck to, it would be a 100 page book. There are so many side notes about fish, their behavior, their habitats, their favorite television show etc.... that I completely lost interest. It feels like you are reading a biology book for high school.

What "Classic" disappointed you?

Hi there Kenn_Baker. I too have tried to read Moby Dick and have put it aside a couple of times. I think, as you say, Herman Melville's writing is way too descriptive. Imho the novel almost reads like a textbook about whaling. It's strange because I have a friend who thinks it is the best book she has ever read, and keeps telling me to keep reading, that it gets better. I am sorry to say that the more I read it, the more bored I get. One day I will finish it, and having finished it, I expect to be an expert on whaling.

[RuqeeD]

I did not like the Grapes of Wrath, just couldn't get into it and ended up skimming, it wasn't exactly a disappointment but it's supposed to be one of those books everyone should read and I'm thinking why?

And not to be too prejudiced but I immensely prefer British or European classics than anything American. I haven't yet come across an American classic that I've enjoyed. But I'm always keeping my mind open, there are still a horde of them I haven't read.

[Bighuey]

I started to read Gullivers Travels a couple times, but couldnt get into it. It just didnt hold my interest. Moby Dick was OK, but like Gannon said, it was too technical. There is another thread on here about this, but thats one case where the movie was better than the book. The version with Gregory Peck. For the most part, I agree the British classics are better than the American, except maybe Poe. Grapes Of Wrath, that is one instance that shows the difference in people. I loved that book.

[Kenn_Baker]

I think we need to jump the term "Classic' a hundred years or so forward, so that "Animal Farm", "1987", "Death Be not Proud", are the books that come to mind, and we can call "The 3 musketeers" and "Last of the mohicans" etc "Antiques instead.

[Jackosaurus]

I always had this feeling that if I didn't finish or like a book that was considered a
"classic" there must be something wrong with me. Now I realize that just like anything
else you like what you like and you don't what you don't. I personally don't like books
that I need a dictionary on hand to read.

[Wind Wise]

Well, I recently read Pride & Prejudice, that was mostly boring.

Alice in Wonderland was a little too "out-there" for me, as was Through The Looking Glass

[Ant]

I don't know if it counts as a classic, but one book that I always meant to read then finally got round to it a year or two ago, and was really really disappointed with.....Catcher in the Rye by Salinger.
My favourite American author of "classics" is Mark Twain.

[Tralala]

I don't know if it counts as a classic, but one book that I always meant to read then finally got round to it a year or two ago, and was really really disappointed with.....Catcher in the Rye by Salinger.

THANK you! Finally, somebody said it! I mean, it was good, okay, but I was expecting something....well, something a lot more than it was, I guess. I've read it a few times, and haven't changed my opinion any. People named their kids after characters in this book...???? I found Lord of the Flies to be a lot more mind-blowing, life-changing...everything I'd heard Catcher in the Rye would be.
..I'd like you to meet my son, Piggy.

[brttn89]

Right now its Anna Karenina

[StephenKingman]

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and To Kill A Mockingbird hardly set my world on fire.

[sin]

So many of them...

1. Ivanhoe
2. Catcher in the Rye
3. To the Lighthouse
4. Ulysess
5. Lolita
6. Right now is 'Brothers Karamazov'...I just made it past the Grand Inquisitor' chapter...
7. Every other novel by Charlotte Bronte except Jane Eyre (i.e. The Professor, Villette, and I think there's something else..)
8. The Sea, The Sea (Beautiful language, but everything else is boring)
9. On the Road (the fun stops after p150 thereabouts; you get this feeling the next 150 pages or so everything is just going to be the same)
10. A Clockwork Orange (in all honesty, 'The Malayan Trilogy' is a better read even though it's three times thicker)

I'm sure there are more I cannot recall now...

I agree that the Gregory Peck version of Moby Dick is good, though I cannot understand why many people think it's a miscast.

[Bighuey]

So many of them...

1. Ivanhoe
2. Catcher in the Rye
3. To the Lighthouse
4. Ulysess
5. Lolita
6. Right now is 'Brothers Karamazov'...I just made it past the Grand Inquisitor' chapter...
7. Every other novel by Charlotte Bronte except Jane Eyre (i.e. The Professor, Villette, and I think there's something else..)
8. The Sea, The Sea (Beautiful language, but everything else is boring)
9. On the Road (the fun stops after p150 thereabouts; you get this feeling the next 150 pages or so everything is just going to be the same)
10. A Clockwork Orange (in all honesty, 'The Malayan Trilogy' is a better read even though it's three times thicker)

I'm sure there are more I cannot recall now...

I agree that the Gregory Peck version of Moby Dick is good, though I cannot understand why many people think it's a miscast.

I dont either. Peck was great as Ahab. Perfect for the part.

[Ollie_94]

I tried to get into Middlemarch in 2010 and put it down after 200ish pages because I had forgotten all the characters! Perhaps I was too young and need to go back to it?

[Tralala]

Whenever I read Paradise Lost (all of two times, now), Eve sounds like Butterfly McQueen in my head. I figure my weirdo upbringing's responsible...?