Classics

I'm not really sure what the criteria is for a book to be called a classic, but I can recognize ones that are, usually by title or author. Another way to know: If it is a book I read, I hated it; If I haven't read it, I tried - and couldn't make myself finish it.  This is not entirely true for all classics, but there are so few classics I've read and liked that it might as well be.
       I'm also not really sure why I hate them.  I don't think I hate them all for the same reason. For many, like Shakespeare and anything written pre-1900, the language and structure make them too much effort for me to enjoy reading. As much as I love books, I can't enjoy anything I have to spend a lot of time and energy to decipher. I have read Children's Classics versions of many books -several Dickens novels, The Count of Monte Cristo, Swiss Family Robinson - and really liked the stories. I just couldn't read them in their "classic" form.
     For many of these books, my problem is either a lack of romanticism or lack of empathy. As much as I love history, I would not have survived living in the world of Jane Austen or the Brontes. I just cannot and do not wish to relate to those times and cultures.
     I'm trying hard to think of classics that I do like, and it's a challenge. Black Beauty, of course.  Kipling's Rikki Tikki Tavi and Jungle Book and Just So Stories. (But I recently tried to read a collection of Kipling's horror and fantasy stories and couldn't get past the second story.)
    I love all of Agatha Christie's books and stories. And I enjoy Mary Roberts Rhinehart, although some of her stories and many of her protagonists - who I'm sure act realistically in accordance to their time and culture - try my patience.
     While I was in school, I thought my problem was that I just wasn't mature or educated or worldly enough to appreciate the works that it seems everyone else thinks are the epitome of literature. As I've grown older and doggedly continued my quest to read classics and understand and enjoy them, I've gotten no better at seeing what everyone else sees. I've begun to suspect maybe I'm not intelligent enough to get it. I also suspect I will keep trying and hopefully one day figure it out.

www.jennifermballard.com
www.daylightsend.weebly.com
www.trustindarkness.weebly.com