Don't let the title make you think I dislike classic novels.
That is not this case in this rant. It is because I have read many classic novels that I have loved that I am writing this.
Lately every "classic" novel I have read has been bad i.e. boring, bad pacing, unlikable characters etc.
Age of Innocence is the book that broke this reader's back. It has been on my TBR list for quite awhile. Yet reading this book took all my will power. Dull as dry toast springs to mind.
When I refer to classic novels I mean books that are more then a few decades old and are on recommended reading lists such as "Every-man's Library" or "Books Everyone Should Read".
Many of this books I have loved. Examples:
All of Jane Austen's books
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Poldark series
Women in Love by D H Lawrence
A Room with a View by E M Forster
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
There have even been some classic novels that are not my favorites/ or I had a hard time reading but I thought they were work it.
Little Dorritt by Charles Dickens ( Took me three years to finish, still worth it)
The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy ( Everyone in the books eventually dies from old age, but the characters are interesting)
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (The main character is cruel but I still enjoy this book)
As you can see I do have an affinity for the classics. Yet somehow nearly every classic novel I have read in the past year or so I have really disliked.
With Age of Innocence I didn't care at all about any of the characters.
Vanity Fair consisted of mainly characters I couldn't stand.
Jude the Obscure left me feeling hopeless
And I never liked the Great Gatsby. I know it is technically a good novel but not for me.
This year my favorite books that I have read have been the first two books in the Poldark series, the epic historical fiction The Sunne in Splendour and The Host by the Twilight writer Stephanie Meyer (still shocked about that one).
I think I am going to take a break from the Classics for awhile. If I draw one from my TBR box, I'll just toss it back in.
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