This post first appeared on my former blog February 21, 2011.
Go ahead and list them. Those “classics” you were forced to read in school. Which ones were on your list?
Great Expectations
The Grapes of Wrath
To Kill A Mockingbird
The Red Badge of Courage
Julius Caesar
Macbeth
Hamlet
I read Great Expectations in high school. Don’t tell anyone, but I *loved* it! I was always two chapters ahead of the class. Yeah, Dickens was a little long-winded in his descriptions, but Pip and Magwich and Miss Haversham—wow, what characters. Dickens provided an emotional roller coast my adolescent heart found so appealing.
I remember wading through The Grapes of Wrath. Our teacher even got us the movie to watch, in addition to reading the book (although, I suspect many students stopped reading the book and just waited for the movie). Nope, neither of them appealed to me.
Shakespeare gave me such an appreciation for drama that I majored in it in college. I read plays by the Greeks, the Romans, medieval mystery plays (which weren’t mysteries at all, I learned). I’ve read most of Shakespeare’s plays, as well as some Ben Jonson and Christopher Marlowe. I read Restoration comedies and existential dramas from France. I even read Neil Simon plays.
I’m such a nut for “classics,” that I’ve even read a few of Jane Austen’s books, and some by Jules Verne and Alexander Dumas. I’ve got Colette and Truman Capote hiding in my To Be Read pile right now.
I see a timeless quality to classics. Sure, they may be steeped in the morals or cultural attitudes of their era, but beneath the period costumes or formal language beat human hearts. These stories share the universal emotions that haven’t changed in hundreds of years—the vices and virtues we all recognize. Greed, envy, love, faith, to name a few. These stories “hold up” even in our evolving world.
Just curious—did you enjoy the classics you had to read in school? Have you read others? Are their classics you’d like to read?