An overhyped classic you really didn't like

[T J 6]

Of Mice and Men is not necessarily over hyped but I did not love this book.

[Quizlit4Stephen]

Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert, really didn't like this, and you can really tell there wasn't much of an editing process when it was written

[Marquesa]

Anything from Edgar Alan Poe. Too dark for me.

[litcat]

I'm sorry Dickens but not once have I been able to finish/get through one of your books.

[Sameeha Ismail]

For me it is The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Nothing captured my attention and I found that I had to force myself to read it. If it had been any longer I would have stopped. It did catch my interest a little in the end, but not enough to redeem the book in any way.

I am anxious after reading this. I have The Scarlet Letter this semester. There will be a seminar to prepare. I wonder if I will be prejudiced even before reading it.

[Abraham Ozo]

I may get a blow back for this comment but I think Shakespeare is a bit overhyped. I feel he just looked legendary because he was the main one doing all the writing then.

[Jabril Miller]

I may get a blow back for this comment but I think Shakespeare is a bit overhyped. I feel he just looked legendary because he was the main one doing all the writing then.

To this point, I found Romeo and Juliet (and essentially every adaptation/expy thereafter) to be incredibly lackluster. While the narrative of two families separated by discrimination and finding solidarity through their losses is a point to the story, the fact that the narrative had to be carried by two emotionally (and intellectually) underdeveloped teenagers in a state of lust really waters down the sacrifice made at the end and trivializes an otherwise "okay" story.

[Will Eaton]

Sometimes excessively old books hold little value for me, and they're worth reading only because you can pick up on literary allusions thereto in subsequent texts or appreciate them as being innovative for the time in which they were written: Hesiod's The Theogony or Dante's Divine Comedy, for example. And some books just don't click with me: the most recent one of those for me is Moby Dick, a rambling book that I did not at all appreciate.

[G Duda]

I'm probably gonna really annoy some people (can I use the phrase 'p'ss someone off' on here?) but both Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen & the Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. The first one was a school read & a veritable slog bogged down by an overabundance of dialogue lacking any tags. The other was a poor attempt at white feminist rhetoric that said absolutely nothing new or interesting. Big big disappointments, both of them.
I'm especially mad at the Handmaid's Tale cause I really liked Atwood's poetry. But her prose was just so godawful & boring & ugh, I couldn't stand it!

[G Duda]

It feels almost like sacrilege to say, but for me it’s Les Miserables. I just couldn’t follow Victor Hugo’s way of writing. I found it to be cluttered, messy and confusing with far too many unnecessary details. That being said, I still love the plot of the book.

Oh, poor Les Mis, but I can't say I disagree! I've been reading the book all year (it has as many chapters as there are days in the year, so I'm taking part in the 'a chapter a day' challenge) & I've had moments where I felt like I couldn't go on anymore! Victor Hugo really knows how to ramble without actually saying much. And I'm not opposed to philosophical ramblings, I adore the Picture of Dorian Grey for example, & I read all the Witcher short stories in like a week (& those get very philosophical at points.) It's just that Hugo's particular style doesn't lend itself to actually engaging philosophical rambles. Maybe if I understood French & read it in the original language, it would be different, but as it stands, I am barely hanging on, & I still have almost 2 months worth of chapters to get through. Save me!

[G Duda]

Romeo and Juliet. I don't understand why so many people think it's "the greatest love story."

Because schools taught them that. People really don't seem to understand that R&J is a satire, & the way schools teach students to not recognise it as satire just adds to this weird cognitive dissonance society has with the play. Can't say I like it, though, I find Shakespeare to be highly overrated. Not all classics are relevant to the modern day, no matter what my 10th grade English teacher tried to tell my class

[Tommy Mayengbam]

The Scarlet Letter.

I read it twice to understand what's so good about it. And I still don't like it.

[Jordan Meehan]

I thoroughly despised 1984. I can't exactly put my finger on why, I just didn't like the writing, the flow, or the characters. I recognize its importance as a classic, especially considering current society, but I just couldn't get on board. I hate not finishing a book though, so I got through it eventually.

[Kathryn Raffloer]

For me, it would have to be Les Mis as well. I just finished reading the book after working through it for a few months. The book was hard to follow due to they way it was written. There were parts I liked and I felt like I had an easier time reading parts because I love the musical so much (this was the main reason I wanted to read the book). But many chapters with descriptions of the surrounding times were too hard to get through at points and I would have to put the book down for days at a time.

[Dan Polumbric]

That's not an easy task, as most of these classics are period pieces sometimes with political and social commentary that was aimed at readers back then. With that said, I'm quite mixed opinion on 1984, even adjusting for the author's era. It is indeed a large-scale cautionary tale, with more thought involved compared to some others(Handmaid's Tale e.g). However the omniscience of the main character, is a bit annoying and unlikely. I'm trying to avoid spoilers, but you'll see what I mean.
P.S as for classics, Shakespeare has been pushed too much in schools at the expense of other classics. It could be bc the play format is easier in schools. Nevertheless, The Bard has made an unequalled contribution to theatre, literary styles and even to English vocabulary. I havent had trouble reading his plays. In contrast, Dickens is a difficult, slogging read. Gave up on finishing A Tale of Two Cities.