MY LITERARY UNFAVOURITES: 10 CLASSICS I WISH I LOVED BUT DIDN'T
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- Опубліковано 16 чер 2024
- Welcome to 'My Literary Unfavorites: 10 Classics I Wish I Loved'! In this light-hearted video, I'm diving into the world of renowned literature - with a twist. Instead of singing praises, I'll share my personal, and perhaps controversial, opinions on 10 classic books that, despite their celebrated status, just didn't resonate with me. From the depths of dense Victorian prose to the twists and turns of modernist masterpieces, these are the tales that left me scratching my head or yawning for something a bit more... my style.
Expect not a scholarly critique but a friendly chat about expectations vs. reality in the literary world, sprinkled with a dose of humor and plenty of empathy for fellow readers who've faced the same struggle. Whether you're a die-hard fan of these classics or you've also felt the sting of literary disappointment, join me for a journey through the pages of the books I wish I could love. Who knows? Maybe we'll discover that the true classics are the friends (and opinions) we make along the way.
0:00 - Intro
0:44 - Time Machine
4:29 - The Black Tulip
7:40 - Hard Times
11:09 - 20,000 Leagues
14:23 - Last of the Mohicans
18:45 - The Trial
23:00 - Sense and Sensibility
26:53 - The Age of Innocence
31:06 - Hound of the Baskervilles
35:30 - Titus Andronicus
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20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is in my top 3 favorite novels of all time. And I adore Captain Nemo. We all enjoy different books, and that’s a good thing! 😄
well said 👍 live long and prosper 😁🖖
I read this only a few years ago and quite liked it. I found Tristan's criticism a bit odd though. Sure, the lengthy descriptions of unfamiliar terms for the various kinds of sea life dragged a bit and I thought the bit of invented undersea geography at the Mediterranean unnecessary but what was wrong about his description of undersea trips in diving suits? Jules Verne was fascinated by the modern technology of his time so did his best to get that side of things right. I understand (see Wikipedia) that the first translator of the novel into English was an expert on mediaeval French, not contemporary technical French and didn't realize that some obsolete French words has been repurposed for this new technology, so he translated them to inappropriate English terms. Maybe that has carried through into later translations.
Age of Innocence is one of my all time favorite books. It’s about a dying society trying to preserve its antiquated rules. In addition, Wharton’s writing style is exquisite. All her stories deal with important topics. Don’t let the beauty of her writing obscure her dead on observations of decay and mutability of society. I read almost all her fiction novels and am amazed that under the gentility and flouncy costumes, there is a laser steal edge of observation of unwelcome reality. Age of Innocence has a cruel core under the depiction of privilege.
I agree! I love novels that portray the difficulties and constraints of upper class society and this one does so brilliantly.
Well said ❤❤❤
Appreciate your comments on this book!
So glad to hear of another “Age of Innocence “ fan! That book literally haunted me for 10 years, because of what the life did to Archie as a person over time. He couldn’t go back at the end. Had something inside him die?
I agree. I love the moment in the novel when we move ahead in time, and everything seems to open up into light and freshness. That was captured beautifully in the film.
My particular taste:
0:44 - Time Machine - Love it and continue to love it, read it in Spanish and English
4:29 - The Black Tulip - I was underwhelmed. Read it in french and that did not changed the experience.
7:40 - Hard Times - Plodding, hard to finish, read it in Spanish. I do not want to read it in English.
11:09 - 20,000 Leagues - Genius. I read it in french
14:23 - Last of the Mohicans - Hate it. Read it in Spanish
18:45 - The Trial - I got terrified. I loved it but could not read it again. Good to catch PTSD for me. In Spanish
23:00 - Sense and Sensibility - I enjoyed every page. Read it in English. So elegant prose.
26:53 - The Age of Innocence - Not read it yet.
31:06 - Hound of the Baskervilles - After 10 times, I stop counting the times I got back to this fantastic book. Real Genius.
35:30 - Titus Andronicus - Have not read it yet.
Cheers
My mother used to read us Sherlock Holmes before bed. As a child The Hound of the Baskervilles was my favourite. I still love it.
I live near Dartmoor and it is a very atmospheric place, with legends that Conan Doyle was told by his friend that he was staying and with used to make Th Hounds of the Baskervilles. If you stand on the moor on an evening when the mist comes down you can't see more than a foot or two. My grandfather was driving his lorry across the moor from Plymouth to Exeter and the mist came down and h❤e couldn't see the edge of the narrow road so he drove of road. When he got out in the morning, the first set of steering wheels was floating in the bog, and the second set was all that was all that was preventing his 4 axle rigid from sliding into the bog. A skeleton of one of the moorland cattle was floatin a yard or two away from his cab. So yes, I can both appreciate and love th tory, but realise few of us like all of a writers works. So well done Tristan, for admitting what most book lo ers know, that you can't like everything, even with the classics.
Tristan thank you so much for your content. You are an absolute JOY!! You have become my favorite booktuber!! All of your content is so genuine, sincere, enjoyable, and honestly funny. All the while I educating me and making me a better human. Thank you so much. ☺️
You had me cracking up throughout this video. It was so refreshing to hear your honest comments on these classics. So glad you made this video. Good job! 😄
This was brilliant,
Your honesty is so refreshing. But then, pretension is not your style, which is why I am a subscriber.
I also enjoy your humor.
Thank you for your channel.
Best wishes. 🇺🇸🇺🇸
I have been trying to read Moby Dick for 50 years 🙄I'm nearly half way. I hope I make it before I die 😂
I'm not alone! Yegads, that book HATES me. It's defeated me over and over. I could kick myself because one time I got about 1/3 into it before I gave up. I should have just pushed through. I even bought one of those abridged children's editions and I could barely get through THAT. I couldn't tell you what I even read. Why does it hate us so?!
The good thing about Moby Dick is I hate it so much I can pick it up any time and with a sense of dread know exactly where I'm up to.
@@karenirving7088 Hahahahaha!
I found the second half a little better, but dang it was hard to get through!
Moby Dick was my dad's favorite book...and out of our whole family only my daughter has read it.
As a German who studied literature I have read The Trial several times. I didn't like it the first time but now I adore it. I think you can't appreciate it when you are looking for a whole, rounded story but have to read it scene by scene. Kafka is always better this way. When you read it that way you can see in every sentence and every scene what a genius he was. The last sentence of The Trial (in most editions) is one of the best closing sentences I have ever read.
my HS teacher used to say that kafka's sentences are structured like the streets of Prague 😅 every sentence that man wrote was beautiful
I was inspired to read Kafka's major works by a friend I had at the time who was a fan. I understood (I am a STEM guy, not a literature 'major', so I might be wrong) that The Trial and The Castle were a complementary pair, so I read both. My take (I am a religious non-cognitivist rather than an atheist but I don't have a lot of time for religious thinking, so I expect I shall get torn off a strip by someone here for this) is that they are complementary novels about religious thinking. The Castle is a metaphor for the striving towards the Ineffable, a quest which is unachievable because it always remains out of reach. The Trial is about the tragedy of the human condition. We are innocent but we are mortal, so are condemned to die and perhaps before the advent of modern opiates, often to a very slow painful death. This is unconscionable but it is going to happen anyway. Thus, K, at the end prefers to delude himself that he is guilty, when he knows he in fact innocent, as to believe his death is somehow justified (i.e. there is moral order in the universe; there is God) is preferable to accepting it as a meaningless fate in an amoral universe.
I love Hound of the Baskervilles because of the atmosphere of Baskerville. It's my favourite of Sherlock Holmes.
Jules Verne and HG Wells were cutting edge for their time. I also got hung up on the 800,000 year old matches just sitting there. That would be like touring some old ruin of an abbey and finding an old bottle of wine or a quill or something. Except way more impossible.
But it makes me think of Andy Weir’s The Martian--someday a third grader on a moon colony will read that and say “NO WAY potatoes can grow in that environment! Sheesh, do they think we’re stupid?”
And THANK YOU for giving me permission to not like some of the books I’m supposed to like! It’s like I’m embarrassed to tell people.
Journey to the Center of the Earth was the first "adult" book that I read, totally independently. AS
You make me want to read eadith Warton now for the ending 😂😂😂😂😂 thank you x
Mark Twain wrote a beautiful send up of James Fenimore Cooper. It mentions several things that make no more sense than the box of matches you mentioned. He also hated the flowery prose. And the essay was so funny, our little teacher had trouble reading passages to us in High School because he couldn’t keep from laughing at all the wonderful barbs.
I love the book, and have read it like 3 times, but I guess it's not for everyone. Some of the action scenes kept me on the edge of my seat. It is the oldest book on his list, except for Titus, but that's not a novel. Twain wasn't completely off base with his critique, but his stuff can be a bit rubbish too. Puddn'head Wilson? Joan of Arc? c'mon.
I love that essay; it is absolutely perfect
Fenimore Cooper's literary offenses by Mark Twain
Yes! I found that essay before I ever heard of Fennimore Cooper. I would never be able to take him seriously. I especially love the Indian's name, "pronounced, I suppose, Chicago." Hikarious.
MT's essay "The Literary Offenses of JF Cooper" is a brilliant read and far better than anything Cooper himself ever wrote.
I’ve read most of these and have similar thoughts on many.
I think what you say is correct. These aren’t inherently bad works; they just don’t work for you. Whether it’s plot or pacing or theme or character or writing style, we all react to art differently. I love the idea that we can honestly come to a different conclusion and both be “right” in our own individual taste.
I think it’s important to try out different genres and time periods and authors to better know what we like and why because that experience of merely finding one’s own taste is growth.
And I think this type of video - “negative” as some may think it - is helpful. Sometimes we can know someone better by knowing what they dislike as much as knowing what they do like.
Breaking my heart with "The Age of Innocence", but I get it, it could use more pages.
Sense and Sensibility was her first published novel. Northanger Abbey was her first completed novel, but published posthumously. Pride and Prejudice was a rework of an epistolary novel. So Sense and Sensibility was the first she thought ready for publication.
The Trial became the sentence for me personally.
Ditto.
I can certainly appreciate the fact that not everyone likes one book or another. If we all liked the same thing, life would get borong.
Oh, wow ... thank you for the comments on "Time Machine," "Hard Times," "20,000 Leagues," "Sense and Sensibility." I've always felt bad about how much I dislike them. When you pulled out the Sherlock Holmes collection and explained it would be one story, I said to myself: "Oh, Tristan. Please say 'Hound of the Baskervilles.' Please. Please. Please." And .... boom. I HATE that story so much because I was expecting a GOOD Sherlock Holmes reveal and this one was just horrid. I loved the point you made that many "classics" are only described that way because of the writer. Oh, and yes to more of the bear thing with "Last of the Mohicans" (which was another blah for me, too).
I don't feel sorry for disliking a book.
We all have different tastes and what a boring 🌎 if we all liked the same books.
Finally, FINALLY, someone who feels the same way about Marianne that I do, and I despise Willoughby, the whole book simply leaves me cold.
I didn't like her, either. I'm more of a Elinor by nature - but without her extreme goodness and kindness 🫣.
A self-indulgent and self-absorbed sister like Marianne would have annoyed the heck out of me.
It's one of the few instances, where I liked the movie adaptation much better than the actual book. Kate Winslet did an amazing job playing her and made her somewhat more likeable and relatable than the book character to me.
Yes, so nice to know others agree with me, I love Jane Austen, but S&S is my least favorite
I agree. I literally threw the book against a wall, because of her. It is my least favorite Austen.
You're supposed to despise Willoubhy....he's the villian
It made no “sense” to me that Elinor could feel such pity for Willoubhy -I couldn’t accept that she would sit there and listen to his lame excuses. When something like that happens my frontal lobe remembers that this is just a book and I lose that interface with the characters.
Another example was the icky weird pathetic explanation of how the Colonel wins his bride. It sounds like she sort of puts up with him then marries him then gradually tolerates him more and more until she is able to be somewhat fond of him.
All that being said, I still like the book and I’ve read/listened to it multiple times. It’s Jane FREAKIN Austin, people!!!
*stunned into silent horror*
HG Wells the time machine is one of my all time favourites.....
😂
We all have our own tastes and happily so
I was stunned as well. The book is brilliant and has both scientific and literary merit in abundance. Although on the pleasure scale it might score very low for some people.
Agreed, when you think it was published in 1895 and it dealt with topics such as morality, evolution, gender, knowledge and it's protection, philosophy and society. I do love sci fi so I know I'm biased but to me it's prescient and important 😊
It is one of the novels which means a lot to me as well. I read this in my teenage years when I also saw the film adaptation and have to disentangle them in my mind. TV, film and literary SF and science really inspired my choices in life. I think Socialist Well's depiction of the Eloi as effete and purposeless was a warning that a polarised society could eventually be as damaging to the elite as it is to the dehumanised machine-serving working class. Which was something Fritz Lang missed in Metropolis and George Orwell failed to grasp in The Road to Wigan Pier. He only spoke of future people 'lifting weights' to keep their muscles which would be an anachronism in a society of machine servitors when criticising Well's The Shape of Things to Come and so failed to appreciate the dangers we are now coming to terms with of he impact of an overly sedentary lifestyle to our physical health.
The part I particularly remember in the book was near the end with the Time Traveller's trip into a very distant future with a cooling red Sun (a modern understanding stellar physics was some years away) and a biologically limited world of large, almost immobile crustations, long after mankind had disappeared. I found that very elegaic and was reminded of this a few years ago listening to an audio version of City At World's End by Edmond Hamilton
I love Hound because I enjoy the gothic atmosphere and touch of the supernatural. I wish Conan Doyle had written more stories with those elements in them. I don’t care as much for the realism and the technical details in Sherlock Holmes, although I appreciate that they provide a solid framework for the stories that keeps them from becoming typical Victorian melodrama and cheap thrillers.
Well, this was loads of fun to watch! 😅 The biggest blasphemous one for me on here is The Hound of the Baskerville. I loved it and the whacked out dog. That being said, the way you bashed these great works still made them sound fascinating. I can't wait to read 20,000 Leagues and The Last of the Mohicans now. 😂
I put The Black Tulip on hold because I want to read it now. 😂
@bridgetsmith9352 right? How did he make all these books he hated sound incredible?
Age of Innocence totally put me off Edith Wharton. Somewhat surprising because I seem to remember enjoying Ethan Frome. Love your videos though, Tristan!
The time traveler finds the matches in an airtight case in a museum's technical chemistry of the past exhibit, so they're not anachronistic, it just shows how advanced the preservation of the past has become in the future. Plus it's very much relevant that he has to walk to the past first in space by going to a museum, before returning to it in time with his time machine, considering the whole premise is time being a dimension that you can travel in like space :)
I disagree on Weena as well. It's important to keep in mind that despite her showing affection and gratitude to the time traveler she is essentially an alien from a race which has lost its selflessness (they barely respond to Weena almost drowning) and its concept of writing and perhaps abstraction ("...the bare idea of writing had never entered her head. She always seemed to me, I fancy, more human than she was, perhaps because her affection was so human.") so she's not going to fulfill our character expectations the way a human does. She is more akin to a needy cat, which I find eerie and sad in itself.
Excellent response. I think Tristan is being honest when he says that he does not enjoy sci-fi. I'm like that with fantasy (and I'm reading a fantasy series right now, together with the stories of Lovecraft): it's very hard for me to get into the fantasy story, to believe it, to submerge myself into it. Tristan may have an issue with the suspension of disbelief necessary in sci-fi because, as a genre, it does not appeal to him. But your comments on The Time Machine are spot on. Thank you.
I loved your Mohican in 5 min with the high-viz jacket 🤣. I actually devoured the Leatherstocking stories when I was about 13. Haven't been able to re-read them since, though. There is a certain sweet feeling of disappearing into an adventure which I remember from reading as a teen. Too much adventure was not possible then. I kind of miss that.
I'd like to hear more about appreciating vs enjoying.
I've tried to read Wuthering Heights three times. I usually get about half way through when I toss the book aside again. There are so many things right about the book, but I can't stand Heathcliff and Cathy. Such unlikable characters. I just couldn't give a toss if they lived or died.
I detest all of them; maybe dislike Nelly but not detest.
Agree about WH. I have a really beautiful edition with really Gothic drawings that are just gorgeous. But I just can't read it, although I pick it up and look at the pictures once in a while. I had a matching copy of Jane Eyre, but my dog ate it.
The characters are all dysfunctional.
Read it twice. utterly loathe the characters and therefore can’t enjoy the book at all.
@carokat,
We are the Few but there are good reasons we do not like WH: it's depraved, depressing,nasty and so many other negative words ! 😊
I adore the trial (my favorite novel so far, but I haven't read that much yet), although I think it's important to have in mind that it's an unfinished work, that's why it feels so abrupt at times
and Kafka didn't want to be publish after he died. Maybe we should have listen his wishes.
I just stumbled upon your channel and I like the way you discuss the books very much. Finally, you seem to be a real Englishman bc I can't hear any accent or, in other words, you speak the "Oxford English" that we were taught at school. I can understand your english very well (german), I enjoy your voice and style.
I personally like most of Verne's works as well as H.G. Wellses books, my inner mindset is 'the more absurd the better' here.
All of Jane Austens novels are a really hard read for me, I am afraid I don't quite understand her and think it may be more for women to read and enjoy Austen...(?!)
Simply put, you got a new subscriber.
All the best from Leipzig, Germany 0
I'm currently reading 'Shirley' by Charlotte Bronte and feel the same way you do about Sense and Sensibility.
Sorry, had to delete!
Took me two weeks to finish Mansfield Park not Shirley.
Kept reading the same page, then the same paragraphs, then the sentences ....b..o..r..i..n..g.
Are you aware that Dumas used assistants to write a good deal of his texts, in much the same way that Patterson does today? That might explain the change in the book you talked about.
I had no idea that was even a thing back then.
Something that I remember finding hilarious about The Black Tulip was the amount of footnotes explaining all the historical facts that Dumas had got wrong or misinterpreted 😂😂 There were so many it was genuinely comical 😂
😆 I love both "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" and "Hound of the Baskervilles." Sometimes where I'm at in life makes a difference in how a book impacts me. "The Day of the Jackal" greatly influenced my reading preferences as a young adult and forward in life. I've been reticent (read there 'afraid') to reread it lest it not captivate me the way it once did.
I'm relatively new to following your channel, and this gave me such a good giggle. I majored in English Lit and enjoyed your thoughts here so much, and yes... I do love Sense and Sensibility but also see your point.😂 It's not my favorite work by Austen either! (Persuasion is my favorite.) I agree that we can appreciate a work without personally liking the story. Can't wait to continue backtracking through the videos you've shared.😄
It's a pleasure to meet such a kindred spirit. And your balance of comment was delightful 😊 thank you.
You should rather say which Sci-Fi you like!--- In fact I read both H. G. Wells' Time Machine and Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea when I was teenager and I was mesmerized by them to the point that I was encouraged to go read more realistic literature such as War and Peace where I discovered a new universe. As for the Kafka's Trial, it is exactly the absurdity and irrationality that create the theme of the novel and create Kafkaesque style.
Although I love Jane Austen, I agree with Tristan on Sense and Sensibility. Also, I would have Wuthering Heights on the list.
Without a doubt.
I absolutely detest Wuthering Heights for so many reasons.
Oh my gosh, yes. While I do appreciate its artistry, Wuthering Heights might possibly be my #1 most despised classic novel. I do not understand the love it gets, or why so many people think of it as a romantic book. Ew.
@theoriginaledi,
I am in the same boat as you; cannot call it a romantic novel. It actually repulsed me. All the characters seemed evil or simple mad, or lacked moral fibre. Cath married two first cousins; there is child abuse and some really weird goings-on.
Always wondered why it is considered as a romantic novel....where is the romance ? Catherine is mentally fixture and Heathcliffe is a sadist.
PS: Sorry. UT ...not fixture but disturbed.
I wish I could correct after completing a comment....have to erase or PS.
Apologize.
A Study in Scarlet is the Holmes story that drives me crazy. The part of the story that is the flashback just took me out of the story and I was never able to recover from it.
It’s largely a western!
I think Doyle is in his element with the short stories vs a full length novel. I disliked A Study in Scarlet more than the others. Hound is fine but Scarlet is abysmal to me.
I completely agree with you about Titus Andronicus. I will never read it again. Once was enough.
Never read it and unlikely to do so.
I know it’s a matter of taste but Fenimore Cooper was greatly admired in his day. Victor Hugo called him the greatest novelist of the century outside of France. He was also admired by Balzac, Thoreau and D.H. Lawrence. Of course, nowadays he is mainly remembered for Last of the Mohicans and that will not be forgotten for as long as Hollywood goes on filming it.
Yes! I am half way through sense and sensibility and keep waiting for it to get good to find out why everyone loves it and I am just struggling! I loved Jane Austens Northanger Abby so I had such high hopes.
Jane Austen (to me) is a hard read. Mark Twain is a hard read. So is Willie Shakes. By hard read, difficult to smoothly glide over the words. Dickens is hard too. I spend a lot of time reading Agatha Christie, John Grisham, Stephen King & Sherlock Holmes (Doyle). I can have respect for the classics & my fav is Count of Monte Cristo. But sometimes you want a nice escape read instead of a struggle.
Sorry, I am getting so fed-up with UTube typos that I have to delete comments.....yes, not a bad idea: thanks ! 😂
I promise it gets easier! My very first classic ever was Tale of Two Cities. I picked it because it was short.
I had zero understanding of how people traveled around, what the French Revolution was all about, and I got stuck on every third word. Like “waistcoat” WHAAAA?
I just kept plowing through and slowly the story started to make sense. By the end I was understanding it mostly although a lot of it was lost on me.
Don’t try too hard to understand it, enjoy what you can, bleep over the rest, and soon you’ll see why they are called Classic. It’s like the finest food you’ve ever tasted.
About the box of matches, nothing else in the palace of green porcelain would have been useful to the time traveler as they would have been scavenged by the morlocks. A simple box of matches, however, does nothing but produce fire and light, which would have been odious to the morlocks. Also the box was preserved in a futuristic museum display case.
As for the book's pacing, it's generally regarded as snappy. So it's a bit unexpected to hear you regard it as sluggish.
Moreover, the book has a rich symbolic layer underneath the surface. I suggest you look into it a bit. It's quite moving when the time traveler proves the truth of his story to his guests by presenting them with flowers in the dead of winter--a simple thing that represents the most important human trait that would endure despite the degeneration of the species: kindness
I was with you the whole way until you mentioned Hound of the Baskervilles. That one hurt, you may have heard me crying. 😆 It's one of my favourites. But I know you are a fan of Sherlock as we just read him in the Patreon group so I can forgive you this time. 😄 Great video!
I really like that you are willing to share what your least favorite books are on UA-cam. As an American though I love the Last of the Mohicans. Great story. I prefer the movie of Hounds of the Baskervilles the book version is okay. Great video!! Please do a video like this on your other channel?
Oh, wow, Tristan, I feel like commenting pages and pages... What an interesting list and a great idea. Re The Trial: I've not read the book, but I loved the film, starring Anthony Perkins as K. It had a dreamy weirdness, and the humour came through as well.
Re Sense and Sensibility: I agree, Austen is learning her craft so it doesn't come close to her mature novels. But, with Marianne, isn't she spoofing the Romantic Heroine? Like when M lies down to die of her broken heart but gets better in a day or two? And I love the minor characters -- Lady Middleton and her cross husband and her vulgar mother! And the Miss Steeles!
Love The Age of Innocence!😊😊
This was great. Would anyone else like to see Tristan list the classics he thinks are perfect and why?
I would say that I thought the screenplay that Emma Thompson created was better than the actual book. She changed a few things in the plot and I thought it was actually better. Still, I didn’t hate ‘Sense and Sensibility’ the book.
Oh just stop😂
Emma Thompson made an excellent job of Sense and Sensibility apart from casting Hugh Grant as Edward Ferrars - his whole performance was toe- curlingly dire and Emma Thompson’s cringeworthy exaggerated crying scene at the end completely ruined it for me.
I agree with you! Love the movie! The book, not so much.
I agree with the casting.
Wish Alan Rickman was a bit younger. However, Emma Thompson didn't look in her very early twenties, p!ease ! No wonder she altered a few things......should have said Rickman was Ferrars!
Tristan...I love this video. Have you thought about doing a Shakespeare ranking of all of his plays? Thank you for the great content. Love ya!
Enjoying your video while having afternoon coffee.....I love the Hound!!!😅 Sence and Sensibility I also enjoy.
I totally agree about The Hound of the Baskervilles! I read it in sophomore year in high school and thought it was the most ridiculous drivel that now, 50 years later, I still feel the aggravation I felt back then. I do disagree on Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. I loved it. The Austen that I
didn’t like was Northanger Abbey. I understand what Austen was doing, but I couldn’t get into it at all. Also, I couldn’t make any progress with Last of the Mohicans. I also found the movie unwatchable which shocked friends with crushes on Daniel Day Lewis!
Please do a video on Sense and Sensibility! Im reading it right now.
I’m with you on almost all of these and it is wonderful to hear someone talk about these books without reverence. The book at the top of my personal list of classics you could not pay me to read a second time would be the sound and the fury seriously the stream of consciousness lack of punctuation thing drives me crazy I understand it works for some but that is not me.
Thank you!!! I feel validated. "Hard Times" was the first Dickens I ever read. It was summer reading for my Freshman year of High School. I was put off for years.
Jumped ahead to see the book list and will go back but definitely agree with the hound of Bask - wanted a mystery but was disappointed- BUT thank you SO much for recommending The Lady in White - that was fabulous!!!!!
I love I can find most classics for free on the internet, no heavy books to lug around and there are even audio book versions. Time and place are important when looking at classics such as The time machine and 20,000 Leagues under the sea as they were quite remarkable in their day groundbreaking science fiction stories.
Totally agree with you on the Hound of Baskerville!
Loved it, not entirely sure about few books, still huge like and waiting for more videos!
I think it’s fun to see what books people don’t like and why. It makes it easier to see where our tastes align and where they might clash. I too am a fan of the dystopian end of science fiction but time travel doesn’t bother me. I haven’t gotten to HG Wells or Jules Verne yet, so it will be interesting to see if I like their works.
I would love a full-length video on Sense and Sensibility!! Or any/all Austen novels. I feel like I’m a terrible person because I just don’t like any of them even though I want to 😂 except Emma. That’s the only one that has resonated with me. I think something must be missing in my reading/appreciation
I always recommend Cecilia, by Frances Burney. It is a bit long (more than one thousand pages in the Oxford edition, perhaps the best available, with all the end notes included), but very engaging. Then again, I just like long books, and Cecilia was a fast read for me. The idea that the young heiress will inherit her fortune only if the man she marries agrees to take her last name is just hilarious, but surprising for a novel of manners.
I just finished Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and 20 pages in I couldn’t wait to be done with it and that feeling never left me. I understand what he was doing here, I understand the characters are supposed to lack depth to an extent- but I couldn’t abide the characters or the writing. It was his first novel, I’ll try one more of Hemingways more mature works to avoid casting premature judgment, but my God what a slow laborious read that was for me.
Hemingway had his day and fortunately that day is gone. His novels read like overlong newspaper articles. He was one of the first (learned from Gertrude Stein) popular writer to use that truncated, abbreviated style and he has to be recognized for that, however it really isn't that good. He was better with his short stories, some of which were quite good but like you stated his character development was nil and he never learned how to create a believable female character.
So interesting, I’d love to know more about when you read them I.e how old you were or what stage of life you were in. Have you attempted to read any of these books again? I fell in love with classics at a young age but as I’ve grown older I realise some books I just wasn’t mature enough to appreciate. There are even a few books that I won’t attempt yet because I still don’t think I’m “ready” for them.
But totally agree with Sense and Sensibility…. Dull!
I know you didn't ask for it but I thought I'd give you the classic that I most struggled to get through. It is George Eliot's "Romola". Eliot's genius is readily apparent but I just couldn't get into the minutiae of Italian history.
Oh no I literally just picked up The Black Tulip! 😂 Also, I agree with you on Marianne. I adore Austen but I want to shake Marianne and tell her to get it together!
I read Black Tulip a few years ago but remember liking it, so there is a chance . . . 🤞
@@SylvanianWorldphew! You’ve given me hope!
I think Marianne got destroyed by that sleazebag and was so traumatized that she would have married a scarecrow if her family wanted her to. She went from being unbearable to unconscious.
I agree about The Last of the Mohicans. I made myself read it..because it is considered a classic and because I loved the movie with Wes Studi who plays Magwa. It was a real slog. I still love the movie.
Please do all those videos you mentioned. WELL DONE!
I agree with you about Sense and Sensibility. It just falls flat for me (although I love the movie!). Hound of the Baskervilles, however...😭😭😭 I love that book! It's so atmospheric and fun to read! But, we can't all love the same classics. The one classic I struggle with is Dracula, although I have read it twice, and I hated it less the second time around. 😂
Finally someone who shares my views on DRACULA 😅. For a book considered to be the mother of horror thrillers it is surprisingly dull. A slog fest.
Oh goodness. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I tried reading it in a hard copy. I tried it as an audiobook. I tried it as an ebook. Still haven't made it past the first 1/3.
I was reluctant to watch Finding Nimo because of his name....poor thing😥
Try the old Disney movie with Kirk Douglas, James Mason, Paul Lukas, and Peter Lorre. And of course the real star--the giant squid. It haunted my childhood.
For some reason, I always feel happy when you post a new video. Thank you for sharing your passion with us. The first classic that comes to mind when I think about the ones I didn't enjoy is Hamlet. I do love the book, it is genius, but I find Hamlet the prince insufferable. Finishing the book was so difficult for me just because I kept arguing with Hamlet in my head, but I guess that's what makes the book great, it can get such a strong reaction from the reader.
Hamlet resonated with me as an angsty teenager. His moodiness and recklessness and selfishness and irrationality were like a manifestation of some part of me that I was too timid and decent to express fully. The Mel Gibson adaptation was perfect in my opinion
I love the play.
Hamlet has so many different sides to him.
The famous soliloquy is absolutely
beautiful and philosophically apt.
The play within the play is great and shows that Hamlet has thought a way to prove his suspicion.
Polonium annoyed me when he says that Hamlet is halucinating; do we not all sometimes see figures in clouds (paragonia).
Anyway, makes me want to read it for the nth time 😊
I think one of the reasons Last of the Mohicans attained fame was because of its sensitive/admiring portrayal of the Native Americans. In those days, that was refreshing. I read it in English class back in the 70s, so my memory may be failing me, but I think it got a lot of credit for that aspect -- unique to the American environment at that time. Appreciate you covering some classics you didn't like.
The only good thing I got from TLotM is a pair of moccasins. I was 14 yes old and read the book (but hated it) and saw a film on TV.....which led to my parents buying me the moccasins because I was so patient 😂😂😂
Really enjoyed this episode! I love the Kate Bush song Wuthering Heights but sadly the book not so much 😟
When T says skip it, gotta respect! Only read The Trial--intriguing and memorable on 1st reading and underwhelming on areread 20 years down the road.
"20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" was a DNF for me. I read it in my early 20s and that was 3 decades ago now. It bored me to tears and I never returned to any of Jules Verne even though I also had a physical copy of "Journey to the Center of the Earth".
It turned me off reading science fiction entirely, although I have enjoyed watching some of the genre in film and television.
Please do NOT judge sci-fi based upon 20,000 Leagues. It is 150 years old. Sci-fi certainly has changed since then.
I’m a huge Sherlock Holmes fan, but I have to agree with you on Hound of the Baskervilles.
I actually think that Shakespeare might have intended Titus Andronicus to be a parody of the revenge plays which were so popular at the time he wrote it. It's so over-the-top that I laughed my head off at some of the more outrageous scenes when I first read it. For a while, it was my favorite Shakespeare comedy.
Thanks again for another great video.
Well, I didn't. I was a science and maths (as well as SF) sort of person at school and we didn't get to do any Shakespeare. I developed some familiarity with the noble bard at University and after graduating through seeing the stage productions (I had tried reading King Lear and gave up, realizing that it is better to see it performed and just let the words and rhythm wash over you). Then the BBC engaged in a lengthy (ten year?) programme to produce all of his plays on television so when I sat down to watch Titus Andronicus I though I knew what I was going to get, so I was pretty shocked. Sure, there were deaths and murders in the plays I knew about but this was on a whole new level of violence and sadism.
@@williambavington5392 Thank you for replying. It sounds as if the production you saw was quite graphic. It didn't mean to imply that I enjoy violence or sadism. I certainly don't. But my sense of humor, especially when I was young, runs to the Monty Pythonesque. I realize that Monty Python is not everyone's cup of tea as well.
Another thing that I've noticed: many of Shakespeare's plays can produce very different effects upon a reader depending on the editor. This is also true of the plays' directors. If you had seen a different director's version of Titus, you might have come away with a different impression. In any case, we're probably both in agreement that Shakespeare's powers of invention are phenomenal. He is a world unto himself. Cheers.
@@thomasboggs6691 I just realized I missed the 't' off the end of 'thought', sorry. Yes, you have a point. I think Titus was portrayed by Patrick Stewart (or someone like him) so was played very straight. I guess bad acting and staging could make a tragedy seem risible. Unrealistic gore and violence does provoke laughter rather than distress (the 'Anyone for Tennis?' sketch in Monty Python's take on Sam Peckinpah or the zombie apocalypse parody of 'Shaun of the Dead') I have also seen the reverse circumstance in an amateur stage production where a light-hearted modern comedy failed to raise a laugh with any of the audience due to bad acting, mainly due to poor timing for the punchline delivery.
Anyway, I think it was senselessness of the murders which got to me. At least in the main Shakespearean tragedies, the history plays and so on murders, while individually distressing are bound up with realpolitik and at least done for a purpose to advance the plot. Perhaps if I had known it was a parody of Elizabethan/Jacobean revenge tragedies I would have known what to expect because at University I recall being told about The Duchess of Malfi, where basically the entire cast ends up dead on stage in the finale. Anyway, thank you for your thoughts.
I'm not a fan of Little Women. I know, I can hear the gasps. It's even worse because I'm an American. I think the book is fine, but you won't ever find it on my favorites list or even my liked a lot list
I loved the 1994 movie and have watched it many times over the years, but I struggle with the book, too.
That's an excellent assessment, in my opinion: It's fine. It's a little (maybe a lot) saccharine for my taste and I don't think I'd ever re-read it, but I don't actively hate it. Meh.
There are some novels I think are more (or were, at one time) for children and this one is, imho.
Mind you, it wouldn't stop me reading these type of books because they can be fun and make you feel happy !
I would love an in-depth analysis of Sense and Sensibility, as well as your ranking of Austen's novels (even with the spoiler!). Im always intrigued about people hating the book because of a character - I think the author meant that to happen so that they get a development arc. For my part, I'm more dissatisfied with the last scene with Willoughby - I i don't find that necessary and I'm glad the movie skipped that bit
The Time Machine was such a slog to get through. I agree completely with that one! Thanks for your fun videos!
@Tristanandtheclassics,
Brilliant 👏👏👏
You made me laugh so much with H.G.Wells and his matches 😂😂😂 then I realized that it never dawned on me; mind you, I was about fourteen at the time !
Black Tulip: reminded me of Hugo's digressions eg: sewers of Paris in LM and architecture of Paris and it's various buildings in THiNG 😴😴
Hard Times: Read it but cannot remember a thing about the novel !
Captain Nimo made me cringe in 20,000 LutS.
TLotM:I remember giving it up when I was 14 years old and never tried to read again.
Trial: couldn't understand why it was so long...why this, why that ,who is this, who is that ?
I got to a point half way and told myself it must be a nightmare ( and mine to read) ! Why did Kafka find it funny ?
S&S: I also loved JA because of P&P, but this novel had let me down ;not as much as Mansfield Park. I am planning to re-read her last three novels hoping that I have more taste now than when I was in my mid-teens. Something tells me it will be just P&P.
AoI: Never read it.
Bought hardback The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes having never read a single one of his stories mainly because I was hooked on Agatha Christie and read all her novels again and again and...... Hey ho, might enjoy one or two of Sherlock 's stories.
PS: Sorry for long comment.🙊
You are quite right about the Hound.
Great video again! I am curious about something.. Have you read Les misérables by Victor Hugo ? If so, what do you think of it ?
Regards from Madrid, Gabriela
Is this an open to all of us ? Hope so.
Personally, I loved it.
The only think about Hugo which annoys me is his digressions.
In LMs it is sewers of Paris, in The Hunchback of Notre Dame it is architecture. Phew !
However, once he gets back to the story he so rudely interrupted, it is a wonderful tale.😅
I totally agree about Last of the Mohicans - although the movie is a 10/10 for me!
I love Sense and Sensibility, particularly for the relationship between the sisters, but the rest I either haven't read them or I agree with you. I found Hard Times unsatisfying, but provided food for thought, 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas is boring, and The Time Machine had such potential but do much with it.
I have always avoided Titus Andronicus having heard the synopsis. However I believe it is now considered to have been co-written.
Thank you for this video. These are all books that I have tried to read and just couldn't finish.
I read the "Black Tulip" as a teen, and at that time I liked it very much, never read it again, so I don't know what kind of reading experience I would have now.
I also read "The Old Man and the Sea" around the ages of 12/13 years old and I got fascinated by it, could not stop reading!
Comments about a few of these:
I actually just recently read both 20000 Leagues Under the Seas and The Time Machine for the first time and enjoyed them both more than I expected. I'm not much of a sci fi person myself but I like reading all sorts of things simply in the spirit of literary and intellectual curiosity. Because I don't generally enjoy sci fi, I expected to be pretty bored, but they both held my attention surprisingly well. Both of them are utterly ridiculous, of course, but that's probably just my very "sci" brain rebelling against the "fi" aspects. :D
Oh my gosh, The Trial is a SLOG. I thought I would NEVER finish that book. I read it partly because of my aforementioned curiosity but also because a friend told me it's her favorite book ever and that it's hilarious. Spoiler, she's German and read it in German. I don't know why it doesn't translate well but I agree with you: It does not. (Also, I deeply dislike surrealism, absurdism, and other flavors of dream-like stories, so that didn't help. I'm a realist through and through.)
I don't love Sense and Sensibility either, but I like Persuasion even less. I do like Jane Austen a lot, and on the scale of all novels, these still rank pretty high. But on the scale of Jane Austen novels, they're at the bottom of the list for me. And Marianne Dashwood is indeed a terrible character but (here's MY shocking confession) the Austen character that I hate the most is Emma Woodhouse. She is vile. I know a lot of people don't like Fanny Price but I'll take her or Marianne any day over Emma. Ironically, although I don't enjoy Persuasion, I like Anne Elliot quite a lot.
And finally, I was actually WAY more surprised by you disliking a Dickens than by you disliking a Shakespeare! You're the biggest Dickens lover I've ever encountered. It's quite interesting to hear your take on one that you like less.
Totally appreciate your comments. You hit it on the head that some novels are considered classics, just because of the author’s history - hope it did not hurt you too much to give your honest comments about Dickens and Dumas. I agree with you on Verne and Wells. The movie for Last of the Mohicans is far better. By the way your reviews on The Moonstone and Woman in White “sold” me to pick them up a couple days ago. Thank you for all the hard work and your videos. Th
The Woman in White has gone in my top ten favourite books.
Maybe I expected a lot, but The Moonstone didn't have that extra not of magic that TWiW has.
Now have ten more Wilkie Collins on my book shelves....read Poor Miss Finch and thought it was awful so,three out of thirteen....hey maybe I might read another Wilkie!
Yes, thAnk you Tristan.
Tristan, I completely agree with you about two of your least favorites and for the same reasons. Sense and Sensibility was the second of Jane Austin’s books that I read, the first being Emma. I was completely bored with S & S but I went on to read all of the others. They were all so wonderful, I tried a second and then a third time to read it again but just could not finish it. The other is Hound of the Baskervilles. What a letdown it was after reading A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four. It just doesn’t fit with any of his other magnificent stories.
I am new to your channel and wonder if you have reviewed Lost Horizon. It’s one that continues to come to mind and I would have to say it’s on my “Favorites” list. Not sure it would be considered a classic.
I laughed out loud several times 😅. Great video Tristan! A few days before your first video about The Last of the Mohicans I bought the book: I never touched it again 😂.
You never know; you might like it.
Tristan, I think that Titus Andronicus, for the modern audience, is much better seen performed than just read. The Anthony Hopkins film is like a train wreck - you are continually repulsed, but you can't turn away from the mayhem, especially the denouement at the feast (somewhat famously put to use in the Vincent Price shlocker, Theater of Blood). Perhaps, like Dumas, Shakespeare needed a quick guaranteed pay-off.
I love the Sherlock Holmes stories but my least favourite of the novels is The Valley of Fear. I cannot get through that thing no matter how hard I try. Doyle is so eager to vilify workers trying to improve their working conditions that they come off as comic book villains. It makes me want to shout a very rude word very loudly.
Great discussion! HG Wells is one of my favorites from my childhood. In recent years I studied Wells' political views...and figured out his SciFi was subtly political. Jules Verne is another favorite... but his works are more travelogues and I find fascinating.
Regarding Cooper, I recommend The Spy. I've read most of his novels and this lesser known one is his best, IMO, most realistic and least flowery.
Oh goodness I thought I was alone with not enjoying the Hound of The baskervilles. I have to say I enjoyed a study in scarlet and the sign of the four more than the Hound of The baskervilles.
Some of the short stories were an absolute joy to read. I'm currently reading the return of Sherlock Holmes short story collection; which itvkind of hit or miss for me.
The Hound of the Baskervilles is so boring that i'm jealous of readers who enjoy it because I love Sherlock.
I love Time Machine and Hound of the Baskervilles. Have reread the latter multiple times, not something I do for many books. The Sherlock novel I like less is The Sign of Four. Talk about unrealistic! All the treasure hunting just for an extended flashback. I do love Mary Morstan becoming Watson's wife, but never liked the twin brothers or Jonathan Small or any of the rest of it particularly. Hound, on the other hand, has an incredible amount of moving pieces, all used in the course of the solution, and is a gothic novel and also a science novel and also a mystery. Yeah, the half brother thing isn't totally convincing, but hey, it's so much fun up until then.
Totally agree with you about Sense and Sensibility. I love Jane Austin but the characters annoyed me to no end I give you credit for reading it again, I couldn’t.
Boring. I struggled to finish it.
They are meant to annoy you, it's a satire. You missed the point it seems.
I agree with you about most of them. I love your sincerity. Thanks Tristan , a great video.👏🏼👏🏼🇧🇷
As a Sherlock Holmes fan. (Last year I finished all 60 stories for a second time), I have to (respectfully) disagree about The hound of the Baskervilles. 🔎🐶
😮
I shall read one story and see how I feel about trying another.
@@apollonia6656 The hound of the Baskervilles wasn't written with Sherlock Holmes in mind. In fact Arthur Conan Doyle had already killed off Sherlock. But he needed a detective for this story. So he decided to use Sherlock again. That is why the story is different from other Sherlock Holmes stories.
@Mr.Peers,
I will read a very short story as a taster and maybe try another 😊
Maybe that is why it is A.C.D's best known because Sherlock isn't in it 😂