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/lit/ - Literature

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21481632 No.21481632 [Reply] [Original]

What classic, commonly-assigned, widely-hated required reading book is actually fucking brilliant and completely deserves its place in the canon? Pic related: one of the best pieces of American lit ever penned by arguably the greatest American author ever next to maybe Melville and Morrison

>> No.21481637

>>21481632
Thomas Hardy is great

>> No.21481644

>>21481637
He definitely is, but I actually never got assigned any of his shit in school. I've been out of school for a good decade now, is he back in vogue?

>> No.21481806

>>21481632
Everyone seems to hate this. It even has a very low rating on goodreads. Can someone explain why.

>> No.21481844
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21481844

>>21481632
OP I took a Hawthorne and Melville class for graduate school a few years ago and had the exact same experience as you. I was blown away by how good The Scarlet Letter is. It's a book that's wasted on high schoolers. You need to read it after you've lived a little, after you've done and seen some things, and you can empathize with the struggles of all the characters, including the villainy of Chillingworth.

Not to mention the prologue is very amusing and sets the stage for the entire story. Hawthorne is very consciously echoing Dante in the beginning, and he uses symbolism and allegory in the novel in a very Dantean way.

It's a brilliant novel. Hawthorne is brilliant in general and everything he wrote should be written.

>> No.21481858
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21481858

>>21481844
It must be only high schoolers that are reading it, considering the low rating on goodreads.

>> No.21482003

>>21481632
>Morrison
Opinion discarded.

>> No.21482025

>>21481806
>Waaaaa!!! The poor adulteress and adulterer!!! The priest committed aduptery! How shocking and unexpected!!! Why can't we all just commit adultery?!?!

>> No.21482029

>>21482003
This.

>> No.21482035

>>21482003
Why don't you try reading some of her novels? I wouldn't agree that she's the greatest American novelist, (for my vote, it's Steinbeck), but I think a fair argument can be made for her as well.

>> No.21482049

>>21482035
>Steinbeck
Opinion discarded.

>> No.21482198

out of all our required reading, the only complaints I remember were about Shakespeare and Great Gatsby. Shakespeare is brilliant and filters soup-brains who can't read. Great Gatsby is genuinely subpar and boring.

>> No.21482677

>>21481806
It's assigned in high school and it's difficult to get through for adults let alone zoom zooms use to instant gratification. It's an old style of writing so it comes off as overly detailed and therefore boring. Due to that it probably filters a lot of people and a lot of the ratings are probably high school students.

>> No.21482683

>>21482049
Kek.

>> No.21482707

>>21482198
>Great Gatsby is genuinely subpar and boring
No, it isn't. Not at all.

>> No.21482733

>>21481632
cool thread opie. i picked it up just a little while ago but only went a couple pages. will try to fit it in more often, maybe shitpost less

>> No.21482738

>>21481632
My 12th grade English teacher dedicated an entire semester to Hamlet and the seethe from my classmates was genuinely disheartening. Don't know what /lit/ thinks of it, but it's my personal favorite from Shakespeare.

>> No.21484079

>>21482738
Your classmates don't deserve the right to vote.

>> No.21484104

>>21481632
Thanks for the reminder OP. Need to read that.

My suggestion would be Candide.

>> No.21484348

>>21482683
Steinbeck is mid af

>> No.21484403

I remember seeing a YT video where the author of Fault In Our Stars called Hawthorne a shit writer and said he's only remembered because there was no one else around at the time. Un fucking believable

>> No.21484443

>>21481844
>Not to mention the prologue is very amusing and sets the stage for the entire story.
How does it set the stage?

>> No.21484463

>>21481632
Thomas Hardy is great

>> No.21484475

>>21481632
Who the hell hated Scarlett Letter?

>> No.21484599

>>21481632
Hawthorne was the first classic author I read as an ESL, and in the original language to boot (challenging for me at the tender age of 22 or thereabouts)
By that I mean I literally went from reading the translated works of Stephen King, Sanderson, George RR Martin and fucking Terry Pratchett to picking up a copy of Twice Told Tales.
It was a revelation for me anons. I still can't find a decent copy of the Snow-Image online to complete his entire short story oeuvre.

>> No.21484621

>>21481632
Wuthering Heights. Watching that gypsy kid rip that family apart and split that estate was amazing.

>> No.21484693

>>21484475
I hated it when I read it in 9th grade. The whole custom house prologue where he just gossips about his coworkers like some old lady is the gayest fucking thing I ever read.

>> No.21485120

>>21484621
I’ve genuinely never heard someone get assigned Wuthering Heights in high school

>> No.21485127

>>21481644
Tess of the d’urbervilles is generally an ap lang/lit book and has been for a long time

>> No.21485208

>>21482677
>It's an old style of writing so it comes off as overly detailed and therefore boring
Of everything we read in high school, the only two novels I would say I disliked were The Scarlet Letter and Madame Bovary. Age may have played a factor, but I had no issue with any of the Shakespeare we read concurrently, and even younger

>> No.21485231
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21485231

>next to Melville and Morrison

>> No.21485310

>>21485120
The honors English class at my highschool read Wuthering Heights. I was with the retards in normal English. We read Jane Eyre.

>> No.21485324

>>21485120
It does get assigned. Although probably less now than it used to be

>> No.21485335

>>21481632
All of them. Many of them get shit on by high schoolers but that is because they read them too young. Imagine reading a book when 16-20 and thinking you got from it all you can and understood it completely. Reading a book at 20 years old and 30 years old is a vastly different experience

>> No.21485539

>>21482707
Sucking F. Scott Fitzgerald's ghost's cock won't turn you into an alpha male, Quentin.

>> No.21486430

>>21481632
Thomas Hardy is great

>> No.21486504

lord of the flies is terrible, as is farenheit 451

>> No.21486844

>>21484104
who the fuck read candide in high school

>> No.21486864

>>21486504

both are just simply good.

the beggining of Farenheit is both boring and wierd and there's the wierd unerage girl encounter which goes nowhere so I get why people would put it down

>> No.21487067

We read Scarlet Letter in my AP Literature class. We voted on a book to read and that was chosen.
Everyone really seemed to enjoy it, but that's expected I guess. We also read Hamlet I personally really enjoyed it. Great poem. Some of the women had problems with Ophilia.
The regular English class read Macbeth which was surprisingly well received. Even the want to be ghetto Mexicans I talked with enjoyed it.
People didn't like To Kill A Mockingbird myself included. Too much of a mess for me.

>> No.21487149

>>21487067
I also don't like To Kill a Mockingbird and will never understand why English teachers fawn over it so much. Harper Lee was an incredibly mediocre writer. Managed to write only a single novel that somehow managed to become a bestseller, and then never bothered to write anything else in her lifetime. As far as Southern Gothic goes, you'd be far better off just picking a Faulkner novel at random

>> No.21487151

>>21481632
What color is that letter again?

>> No.21487204

>>21485335
If you're still reading books at 30 you've failed at life. Reading is for learning, the stage before doing and living.

>> No.21487212

>>21487204
Ah, so I see you are a utilitarian reader and can’t appreciate art, or learn anything past the age of puberty

>> No.21487221

>>21481632
>people hate the scarlet letter
huh? I liked it
Do I have bad taste?

>> No.21487247

>>21481632
Hawthore's place on the pedestal of literature should be right next to Melville and Poe (both of which admired him greatly)
Like some anon above said, the Scarlet Letter and perhaps even the House of the seven gables are wasted on high-schoolers.
His 70 or so stories (all of which are great, no exceptions) are nearly entirely forgotten, with few exceptions like the Birth-mark and the Minister's black veil

>> No.21487249

>>21487212
Past the age of university education. If you continue on and do a PhD or professional degree like MD you are granted an extension on not being a loser for reading books because your extended learning might benefit others.

Reading for pleasure is unacceptable because reading for pleasure only existed because better more pleasurable mediums like streaming, video games, and internet pornography were not invented yet.

>> No.21487286

>>21487204
>Reading is for learning
>you can't learn past the age of 30

>> No.21487296

>>21487286
Your body and brain have started to decay interminably by 30. Any "learning" you do is scrambling against the sloughing of your flesh off your bones. It is laughable and masturbatory pretension to "learn" when you're a rotting elderly sack of 30.

>> No.21487298

>>21487296
take your meds

>> No.21487300

>>21487296
I’m not sure what is bait and what isn’t anymore. Such is the state of nu-/lit/

>> No.21487309

>>21481637
I always shill Hardy in these threads. His prose is absolutely beautiful. Tess of the durbs is among my favourite books of all time. Probably the only classical author of whom I've read more than 4 books.

>> No.21487319

>>21487298
>>21487300
he said, clutching his precious literature in his arthritic melting hands as he felt the mounds of cancer shift in his pancreas.

>> No.21487366

>>21487319
I will fight against the dying of the light and bar your path upwards till my last breath you shit stained zoomer.

>> No.21487377

>>21487366
He’s baiting. No one thinks the smartest people in the world are under 25

>> No.21487383

>>21487204
I read for fun, though?

>> No.21487387

>>21487366
>>21487377

your wheelchair will roll down the hill, carrying your fetid aged form into a meaningless oblivion as my spritely youthful legs carry me to a meaningful zenith you never glimpsed.

>> No.21487389

>>21487383
see >>21487249

>> No.21487403

>>21487377
It's cool man we're both just having fun.
>>21487387
You will never attain the heights I have. I will continue to grow and flourish and at last fade, while you will struggle and curse the footprints I've left behind that you can never reach even if given a thousand lifetimes.

>> No.21487411

>>21487403
the only flourishing to feature you will be the flowers on your grave when at last even the disease of wasting that is aging takes you and your hubris of "learning"

>> No.21487442

>>21487411
Hey man I gotta head off to work now, thanks for the fun really brightened my day.

>> No.21487467

>>21487442
I hope these last days of light in your life are bright before the final setting of your dying sun.

>> No.21488517

>>21487204
lol it's the other way around, but enjoy wasting your youth reading books

>> No.21488572

>>21486844
My stupid ass did because I wanted a view into philosophy at 15. Great intro desu

>> No.21488646

>>21481637
I’ve only read Jude the Obscure, but during a very difficult time in my life. I loved it. What would you recommend?

>> No.21488651

>>21486844
Candide was assigned class reading in high school for me, too

>> No.21488660

>>21488646
Tess and The Mayor of Casterbridge are amazing books.
If you like Jude, you will enjoy those as well.

>> No.21488668

>>21488660
Thank you

>> No.21488804

>>21482738
The brilliance of Hamlet comes on slow and with great labor. It simply is too far above the reach of the average high schooler.

>> No.21489401

>>21488517
I have never read a single book in my life, dag.

>> No.21489565

>>21481806
It's boring as fuck.

>> No.21490235

have a bump for later, I'm sleepy.

>> No.21490258

>>21481844
Him describing the guy in his office who memorized every meal he ate and would only talk about them was pretty funny, reminded me of modern day office life.