Does anyone read classical literature any more?

[Allie_L]

I've read some Jane Austen, Bronte Sisters, and Shakespeare, but what I'd really like to get to reading some day is the Iliad and the Odyssey

[Amanda Nixon]

I love classical literature! I own several books and sometimes I just feel the need for one of them. They almost reset my reading. Sometimes you can get so caught up in a series or type of book that you need a break. When that happens I love to pick up one and read it.

What are some of your favorites?

[Stacy_Morgan]

I've never read classical literature exclusively, but I do read it regularly. Particular favorites are Dostoyevsky, Bronte, Austen, and Dumas.

(please read as a high five) Right with you! Love them! Though Dumas and Dostoyevsky take me a bit longer, thus I prefer audio books for those...

[Stacy_Morgan]

Yes I do, it helps me learn more about my English skills making it more effective both in writing and reading

Agreed. Strange his it helps with writing, but I don't think I'd be half as good if I hadn't read the classics...

[jvez]

I've read Austen, Dante, Tolstoy and Shakespeare. I'm more of a Dante and Tolstoy fan. Shakespeare never really appealed that much to me, and I find some of Austen's plot a bit repetitive.

[CelticSweetie_50]

I love reading classic literature. I hated it in High School, but now I get Pygmalion! I've read Austen, Shelley, Stoker, Dickens, and I know others, but right now the names escape me.

[Sheenah684]

People definitely still read classic literature. I like to read something along those lines in-between contemporary fiction.

[cpivie]

I'm working on reading down my classical lit. To-Read list, and there are some that I have really enjoyed, and some that I didn't care for (just like modern writing, I suppose). Honestly, I really love Jane Austen. Her characters are so real, and their struggles and developments seem so relatable, even though the time period is different. I really enjoyed The Scarlet Pimpernel; I was suprised by how much I enjoyed it. I find I have a hard time with annoying characters if there is nothing else to hold my interest, and that is why I haven't enjoyed books like The Great Gatsby. Of course, I enjoy these books more as I get a little older, so maybe some of my opinions will change as I reread them.

[Mely918]

It's been about a year since I read a classic, but I do enjoy reading them every now and then. The last classical novel I read was the Secret Garden.

[palilogy]

I try to, I have a pile of books under my desk maybe 40 or so and I buy classics whenever I am at a book sale. I don't often read them though, I have to be in a really good mood, place and my eyes can't be hurting. It takes a lot of dedication for me, but I wish I did read them more often.

[Dael Reader]

I like to read A Christmas Carol every year (in December of course), and I occasionally read what most people would call classics, but most of what I read these days is modern lit.

[TaaraLynn]

Classics are my favorites, they take up most of my bookshelves.

[gkgurley]

Oh my gosh, I certainly do! I reread something by Jane Austen every year. I also love old British poetry. Austen, the Bronte sisters, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Tolstoy, and Kafka are among my favorite classic authors.

[Bukari]

Classical literature is still in the shelves of book lovers, but it is just a few who read them for diverse reasons.

[Lil Reads]

When I was really young (elementary school) ALL I would read on my own was classics - I would breeze through books for class and get bored so the school librarians kept pointing me towards more challenging books, usually classics. I remember entering high school and seeing the assigned reading in the syllabus, I probably had already read 75% of the ones on those lists.

Though it seemed like there was a minute portion of the classics people tend to know - Shakespeare is mostly known for Hamlet,Romeo and Juliet, Richard III, and maybe Julius Caesar. They are good plays, but there are so many other plays he wrote with really undiscovered characters. So now my long term reading goal is to find and read the apocrypha of classic authors.