Classics

[gypolord]

His name is George. There's something about it though. . . I mean I still remember it, don't I?

[just_zoe]

Urgh, Of Mice and Men was ruined for me by an overly patronising english teacher, I can no longer appreciate it. There is something about its simplicity that sticks with you though, makes the world seem alot less complex somehow.

Has anybody else read 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'? If you did manage to get through it congratualtions. If you haven't then you have not earnt the right to use the word 'epic' yet, and I mean in the true sense of the word! Although I must say I did rather enjoy it, I'm not usually one for classic poetry but it was weird and wonderful.

Additionally, can anyone help me with the definition of 'classic'? I'm not quite sure when a book gets to be put under this label. I mean there are books I know some day will be classics but the author is still alive, I'm guessing that prevents them being classics!

[Rocket]

I'm not sure what the definition of classic is.

Google says: A classic book is a book accepted as being exemplary or noteworthy, either through an imprimatur such as being listed in any of the Western canons or through a reader's own personal opinion.

I've read bits of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. It was... interesting.

[TiggsRulz:)]

Well I think that by classics we mean older works that have kinda stood the test of time like Dickens' works and Conan Doyle which were done over a century ago. But just the type of older, not really nowadays being-written books count as classics, I reckon. So the criteria isn't so much the author being dead, it just happens that the nineteenth century famous writers are, generally 

[Rocket]

Good definition, beats mine!

[gypolord]

It's not just 19th Century authors. Tolkien, Steinbeck, and C. S. Lewis all have books that can be considered classics. . .

[TiggsRulz:)]

It's not just 19th Century authors. Tolkien, Steinberg, and C. S. Lewis all have books that can be considered classics. . .

Yeah well you know what I mean... I didn't say that they had to be 19th century...

[Rocket]

It's not just 19th Century authors. Tolkien, Steinberg, and C. S. Lewis all have books that can be considered classics. . .

Tolkein and CS Lewis both went to Oxford at the same time and were part of the same writer's club.

[MadCatta]

They drank tea in the library when they weren't allowed! They were so cool!

and I LOVED Of Mice and Men. I cried at the end. Every time I've read it. And yeah, teachers often ruin it. But it's okay now. I like it again.

And The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is fantastic. And, well, when compared with Paradise Lost or The Iliad or other things, it's hardly an epic. But fairly long I'll concede. I really enjoy it, though. The simple rhymes make me laugh.

Another long one, anyone read The Wanderings of Oisin by WB Yeats? That's great. "Then mock at Death and Time with glances
And wavering arms and wandering dances."

and "And in a wild and sudden dance
We mocked at Time and Fate and Chance" are both fantastic quotations from it.

[Pedro-ologist]

It's not just 19th Century authors. Tolkien, Steinberg, and C. S. Lewis all have books that can be considered classics. . .

Tolkein and CS Lewis both went to Oxford at the same time and were part of the same writer's club.

They were both on incredibly heavy drugs...Okay, that is only sort of incorrect. Only CS Lewis was...although Tolkein could have been smoking anything in that massive pipe of his.

I love modern classics. Gotta love 20th Century Sci-Fi...

Jane Austin was so NOT 19th Century, and the classics also include drama works like Oedipus Rex and lots of ANCIENT stuff. There is a hole between the Romans and Shakespeare though. In fact. Classics are technically only things written in the Greek and Roman times. But now it is basically something that is deemed to be very good ~30 years after its publication.

[TiggsRulz:)]

Charles Dickens classic I'm reading at the moment is Little Dorrit - I saw the series before I started reading and loved it. Also quite glad I watched it first, because I get the feeling that if I didn't, I would be slightly lost... 

[Rocket]

I've finished The Catcher in the Rye. It was a good book - read it.

I've started The Communist Manifesto.

[CheddarTrek]

My favorite "classic" book is, by far, The Count of Monte Cristo.  With most of the other classics I've read I felt like I was forcing myself to slog through them.  Dracula was also a pretty good read.

I was not fond of Wuthering Heights, David Copperfield, Frankenstein, War and Peace, or any of a number of others.  Though I will admit that all of them did have their high points and none of them were what I would term "bad."

[Rocket]

I only got to page seventy of War and Peace, though I attempted that when I was 11. Maybe I should try again.

And The Count of Monte Cristo film was good.

[Pedro-ologist]

The tough bit of War and Peace is the effort the reader must put in. Why do some people have several names!!!