Is Reading Classic Books a Waste of Time? Maybe 

Oh, I thought classics meant: "Old, but people still knew about them." I didn't realize there where scholars who decided what books were classics. Whoops!😂 I think of classics as books (and movies) that have some quality that people kept them in circulation long after they were originally created.

The fact that you held that tea cup the whole time is violently enchanting.

I think there are seasons where reading Classical literature is more enjoyable than other seasons. Usually young adulthood, with no kids, is a great time to pick it up. You have enough life experience to understand the depth. This age often likes to have deep discussion with their friends & classic literature is a great spring board for such. And you're not mentally bogged down by school or kids. My kids are teens, so my mind is freeing up for intellectual pursuits again. While I had little kids, I needed light reading. So, it's not that classical reading isn't for everyone. I think there are seasons we don't have the intellectual focus for it.

Thank you! This was so interesting. One of my favourite authors from the Victorian era is Anthony Trollope. He is very prolific. His characters are interesting and realistic and the storyline very captivating. Also what I like about classics is that the authors are dead and there will not be a sequel to ruin everything that came before 😂

I loved your talk about classic literature. I am one of those people who have read a lot of classics. Some I absolutely hated( heart of darkness comes to mind) and some I re read to this day (all of J Austen) I do think 5hat reading so many classics have broadened my view of people and history. I do not regret any of them but maybe if I hadn't been trying to sound so clever when I was younger, I would have given up on some of them a lot sooner. As a child from a very working class culture, classics were a way into a world that appeared far superior to my own. To a certain extent it worked. I still read tons. Books are my safe space, my haven and every now and then I will pick up a classic that I have not yet read to stretch my mind and find myself in someone else's.

Writing this before watching the video. Reading the classics is so totally worth it because classic novels are some of the greatest stories of all time. Even when the novels are about times, places, and social classes completely different from ours, the great novels still tell stories that are timeless and relatable. Love is love, injustice is injustice, grief is grief across generations. That's part of the reason why these stories are great. Why, yes, I was an English literature major, why do you ask?

You are totally on the money. I love the period between 1750 and 1915 so I've dug deeply into books through that period. Learnt lots from some such as Clarissa (Samuel Richardson) and Middlemarch (George Eliot). Did I enjoy all of them? Hell no. The two I've mentioned, bleuch for quite different reasons, and Thomas Hardy's moralising through the most obvious plots devices are another. And let's not forget my favourite novel ending: let's punish the woman for everything that's done to her (yes, Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Clarissa)! But most of all I like your comment about a story reflecting either the mood of the time or disagreeing with what's gone before. Your mention of Sense and Sensibility is so right. But social criticism of the Victorian authors is perhaps what I love best. Charles Dickens and the seamier side of English society through gritty realism (Oiver Twist), Elizabeth Gaskill and industrialisation through comparisons of north and south England, and the most overlooked Victorian writer and unfortunate name: Anthony Trollope. Trollope combines subtlety and wit to expose financial abuses in the Church of England (clergyman holding multiple livings while doing nothing) in Barchester Towers. Of Hardy, I'll say nothing! Couple of questions for you: Have you considered a broader video about Pre-Romanticism in society (eg the wild English garden, the free expression of emotion which could be regarded as "over blown" reactions to love for example) versus how it presented in literature eg Samuel Richardson's Pamela (that's a hell of a read!), the gothic novel and other literary genres. Have you considered reviewing Trollope? I'd love to hear your thoughts about one of my favourite authors as well as your take on yet another Victorian social commentator.

Oh man, Thoreau's bean patch! A whole chapter! I'm an advocate of watching the movie first when it comes to tough books. In high school English class, we usually read the book or play first and then watched the movie. But most of us would have understood the book better if we'd seen the movie first, and it might actually have been more enjoyable. I read the Lord of the Rings trilogy after watching the movies, and I don't think I'd have finished them otherwise.

Many people mostly know 19th century novels as "classics", so they think that all "old books" are overwrought, tedious and slow in their plot development. They often don't consider that most of these 19th century novels were first published not as a whole, but in instalments in newspapers and magazines. They were more alike a series than a modern novel. That's why reading a Victorian novel in a sitting is like binge-watching a TV show. If you read it more slowly, chapter by chapter, it also becomes more palatable, because that's how it was meant to be read. In my experience, 18th century literature, except for the very sentimental novels like Richardson's Pamela, is often more readable for the modern reader, with a brisker pace, raunchier humor and more dramatic themes. Check out Henry Fielding's novels (I especially like Joseph Andrews) or some of the gothic novels like The Monk by Matthew Lewis.

Your videos are so good! You perfectly laid out how we should approach these difficult often inaccessible and foreign materials. Not because we feel like we should because someone told us to or because it'll make us sound smart or to check off a list but because we are internally motivated to do so. But how do we find that intrinsic motivation? Your list of "whys" is a great place to start. I was also a humanities major and many of my subject's classics were boring and hard to get through. We don't fall in love with a canon, we fall in love with something very personal and intriguing in a subject. Finding that something and focusing your energy and attention on that is the way to go. You may very well find yourself years later going back to something you once thought was boring with renewed interest. The "why" can also help us focus while reading. A great book by my definition is one you can go back to over and over and find something new each time!

Excellent video Ellie. My 30 plus years of working in college libraries gave me the chance to explore classic literature at my own pace, at very little expense. Some iI loved. Some not so much. And a few I couldn't get through. I taught myself that if I didn't like a book, there is nothing wrong with putting it down, even if it is a classic. Unlike reading for a school assignment, there's no need to finish something I'm not enjoying. But by at least trying them, I was able to discover writers and stories that I didn't know I would enjoy. So far every Richardson, Bronte, or Bunyan that I learned I disliked, there were many more treasures that I stumbled across like Balzac, Gaskell, Pasternak, Fielding, and Thackeray. So long story short, don't be afraid to try it, but don't torture yourself with it if you find you don't like it.

I read more science fiction and fantasy, than anything else, but perhaps this might be a good time to branch out again. As a child, the stories about Sherlock Holmes, the original fairy tales and Greek/Roman mythology were the first classics I read for my own enjoyment. As a teenager, I moved on to read classic monster books, like Phantom of the Opera, Frankenstein and Dracula. I added classic adventures like The Scarlet Pimpernel, Zorro, The Three Musketeers, Pinocchio and The Count of Monte Cristo. I have slowly been dipping into the other classics like Emma and Little Women, but they are often slower reads than modern stories and so I have to me in the right mood to enjoy them.

Funnily enough, Orwell himself was a socialist, and 1984 was supposed to be anti-totalitarian, but he botched the way he wrote it so badly that it’s heralded as being anti-socialism (I mean, I love the novel, but that’s a terrible way for him to go about making his point imo)

I once read somewhere that the reason why classics are “classics”, is because their themes and motifs, and well, their stories, transcend generations. No matter if the book was written hundreds of years ago, its themes and underlying meaning can still be aplicable today; their stories are the basis of many stories now. I thought that was pretty cool and it really motivated me to read classics ☺️

Reading books was available long before social media and television. For myself, a classic book is one I read many times. I used to escape in my books and still do sometimes. Reading a good book is never a waste of time. A movie based on a book rarely makes sense unless you read the book first. So many great books and many are favorites. They don’t need a be labeled a classic. Hmmm, how limited the world is becoming. Oh well, I hope you have a wonderful day Ellie. Big hugs.

I had this very discussion with my teen son, who has to read classic books for his exams! I told him he has to slog through, and he‘ll „get it“ later. I can’t tell how often, 20 years after high school, that books like „The Old Man and the Sea“ come to mind and something clicks. Well said and well done!👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾I wholeheartedly agree with your definitions: especially when we think of „Jane Eyre“ or Mary Shelley’s „Frankenstein“ as a first of its kind, or Jane Austen’s use of language. But frankly, it lets me be a literary ‚snoop‘! I love figuring out what people were thinking of, discussing and how they were living all those years ago. I have a group of adults reading Frankenstein, and our discussion isn’t „what is romanticism?“ like in high school, but about topics from today: fake news, scientific innovation, courage, guilt, etc. Classics are good for spotlighting those universal concepts. 🐷What do you have against pigs and ponds?🤣😂 I think the point was that absolute power corrupts. If it wasn’t pigs, it would have been another group.

How did I only just discover this channel just now? Lol. Brilliant video. I tried War and Peace, but I stopped. I just couldn’t get into it. I’ll continue to read more British Victorian novels (have not tackled Vanity Fair yet, but I will).

I think what defines a classic is a very interesting topic. I’m glad you explored it. Also how many books have shifted in or out of that category because of the reasons you point out in this video they’re often not very good stories. I laughed on your note about PTSD flashbacks to high school classic reading lists. It’s always been amazing to me of how many books that were considered great in their time are put in “children” classics now because they have happy endings or are a genre that isn’t seen as serious. While “classics” were often considered morose and lackluster in their time and were not designated as noteworthy yet because some scholar list eventually liked them which is why we know or remember them. I always fascinated when I run into books that were considered best sellers and great stories that no one has ever heard of now. For example, Frances Hodson Burnett (A Little Princess, Secret Garden) wrote something like 35 books and a bunch of them were best sellers. Yet most folks only know her for only 2-3 books.

Ellie...this is the best thing you've done, a message about why we (ought to) read. AND I agree with you. My cat, Pip, is sitting in my lap while I type. I like Hemmingway and Thoreau (alas), but Jane Austen, too, and Willa Cather. But I read what I want to, and become interested in new authors and some other time or place about three or four times each year, just like the seasons changing. Lately, it's been detective fiction and romances, but it will change. The books I return to are MY classics, important to me.

I believe reading is worth it. What anyone desires to read, doesn’t matter. There is something to be said about reading to better yourself, however the action of reading is healthy in itself. My kids are special needs, it is too much for them to read any novel. So they read manga. I feel they’re reading, and that is healthy for them. 😉

I read classics so I can say I read them,. Last year I read, but did not understand very much of, Ulysses. This year I plan to read the biggest beast out there, War and Peace.

This is a really good presentation Ellie! :-)

Not sure it’s “Classic”- I recently read the entire series of Sherlock Holmes books. I thought the writing was good, surprisingly vivid and energetic. I did not enjoy the racism. It was interesting to see the style subtly change as the books moved out of the victorian period.

As an avid reader I was surprised when I doing horrid on The Last of the Mohicans pop quizzes in my American Lit class. Then I discovered Spark notes and that the teacher was getting half her questions from their “test your knowledge”section. Cooper desperately needed an editor with a bright red pen explaining to him that you simply cannot go on a multi page tangent about the wind just to compare it to a character. The only way that book with its ethnocentric, sexist view points can be considered a classic is if a board of white male hipsters declared it so.

While I agree that pleasure reading should be enjoyable, and there is a great deal to be learned from reading great books for enjoyment, I also think that occasionally reading great books one does not enjoy as a means of broadening one's outlook does result in a person deapening their ability to think critically. If the goal of education is improved and independent cognition (which is an acknowledged debatable goal), then occasionally getting outside of one's comfort zone is a worthwhile means of pursuing that goal.

Amen, Ellie!! Nobody cares about Thoreau’s pond!! 😂

I am loving your videos so much and will get some Austin (and Gaskell) from the library soon to reread. I must say, though, that my favorite--yep, I just reflected upon it!!--novel is War and Peace. I read it on impulse--I think I found it in a library sale for a dollar--and whipped it right around and read it again. I've read it three times but I feel it creeping up on me once more! Recommended, not to be feared because of its length...just keep reading, it's an absolute, cinematic marvel.

I'm embarrassed to admit that most of the 18th/19th century novels I've read were back in junior and senior years of high school when I took English and World Lit. Oddly enough Austen wasn't part of the curriculum (hence why I read her novels in college) but looking back I wished we had read at least one Austen novel. Each author has his/her own writing style and I feel some connect to me more easily than others. Right now I'm reading The Viscount Who Loved Me (Book 2 in the Bridgerton series) and it's surprisingly quite easy for me to read. Even though it's set in the regency era Julia Quinn is a contemporary author who writes for today's audience.

I hated Pride and Prejudice when I had to read it in high school, because I was confused by the myriad of social interactions. I'm so glad I revisited it in my early adulthood!

Thank you for saying it. Personally, I find that I really enjoy classic but not all of them. They have to capture me in some way and it usually starts from the language and structure of the writing itself. I think because I’ve always found story telling intriguing and it feels like time capsules of a sort. Also, I like to hear what people enjoy in a book and then experience it for myself and see if I agree.

This piece gave me ideas for things to write about. I've found that how I respond to a book depends largely on my mood. I went on a big Henry James kick a long time ago. At the time I enjoyed it, but I tried it again years later, and I hated it. One reason for reading the classics is to be privy to the conversation going on over the decades between different authors. I found perspectives of a few of the Russian authors on the "woman question" to be quite illuminating. There is an interesting quote in "Anna Karenina" that gives insight into what was going on between the sexes in Russia in the nineteenth century: "We mustn't forget that the subjection of women is so great and so old that we often refuse to comprehend the abyss that exists between them and us." I've found most of the classics to be good stories, but that depends on my mood at the time I read them.

This was a good reminder for me.😊

I hated alot of books because I was required to read them. Shakespeare, Dracula, and Thomas Hardy in particular. Now that I am an adult and have revisited them, I can truly enjoy them.

I would love to take a literature class from you, classics or otherwise!

Hi, I am new to your channel, and I'm really enjoy your videos. I agree that you should read books because you love them. I was a bit disappointed that you left out mysteries, since it really was a chance for women to shine especially in the between war period. Also, you left out my favorite Science Fiction author HG Wells. Sorry, I had to put in my two cents.

I love your style

Thank you for this. Vampire romance is my weakness, but I can’t talk about it in my social media 😂😂😂😂

LOVE this! I, too, attempted to read that (probably similar) list of "Must Read Classic Lit) books ... I got stuck on Return of the Native by Hardy and gave up. I still can't read that book. My late husband got stuck in Ivanhoe LOL And to think some of the best classic lit was/is banned!

I agree about reading what you enjoy, I used to enjoy reading a lot of classics, I was like 11 when I read Jane Eyre, and I couldn't put it down. I'd read most of Jane Austens novels before I finished high school, between vampire books for teens, romance novels, science fiction, books for children, both urban and high fantasy, crime stories, and anything in between. I still enjoy the stories, but I find myself watching movie adaptations rather than read, because I don't have the attention span for it anymore. Do I want to read books like war and peace, 1984, and other of the heavier classics? Sure. But not now. When I do read, I tend to gravitate to gay Ya-books, fanfiction and re-reading things that I know I love. Because I miss reading the way I used to, and choosing things I know I'll enjoy is more important than checking books on a list that somebody else wrote.

I'm going to tell a Long story, but bear with me. Back when I was a small kid, in the early 90's, before home computers & internet, ebooks & easy access to books, my family moved to a place where, aside from the primary language, English was the second language used because there were so many foreigners from around the world who had to communicate somehow. My family's issue : we didn't speak a word of English between us! What we knew as a third language was French, so I ended up going to the only French school there. French became my first language in the space of 6 months. Now, one thing you need to know about me is that my survival hierarchy, there is : 1.breathing, 2.reading, 3.eating & sleeping. Even as a 6yo, reading was essential to me & it has only gotten worse since. There were 3 places I could get French books from : buying them from one small corner of a faraway library at too expensive prices for my family, or borrowing from either the lending library of the French embassy, or the school's library. So I started reading mystery/adventure fun books borrowed from the embassy & age appropriate more serious books from school. When I couldn't get to the embassy anymore, I was left with the school library, around 10 or 11, when I started middle school. Guess what the school library had as books. Mainly what you would consider classics, or really well known authors. So I just started reading those. Before I was 14, I had read Molière, Alexandre Dumas, Victor Hugo, Gustave Flaubert (Mme Bovary), Voltaire, Diderot, foreign authors like Jane Austen, George Orwell, or Jame Clavell (Shogun) translated... My world expanded with few limits. I had read most books we studied in French class years before, I truly understood the changes in history class thanks to authors like Émile Zola who depicted in his 20 volumes saga the astronomical changes in French society during the Haussmanian time in the middle of the 1800's. I learned about feudal Japan, the regency era in GB, the reign of Louis XIV the sun king, the US civil war, the progress of science in the middle east during the dark ages in Europe, philosophical concepts like freedom, equality, the social contract, predetermination, "I think therefore I am"... On my summer vacations in my parents countries, where I could find books in French more easily, I bought SF, fantasy, mysteries, thrillers, mostly translated from English. Speaking of English, at 7yo, I got angry because my French school didn't provide real English classes until middle school (following the French system of learning), & I decided to learn by myself by watching subtitled English speaking movies (& learning to read subtitles while I was at it, now I always have them on, just because, the same language usually unless it's not one of the 6 I know). By the time I was 14, I wanted to read Clive Cussler or Martha Grimes in English because I could find their books where I lived, so I gritted my teeth, kept my dictionary close & started reading. Now a days, I read a lot of Fantasy, translated East Asian web novels,... No classics anymore, but I was fundamentally formed by the diversity of my reading. I learned so much about the world, its complexities, the motivations for so many wars, & an unsatiable love of knowledge. It made me a better person. But most of all I've ever read was by choice. I have authors I'll never go near. I can't stand Colette after 1 book. Rousseau taught me the "live by what I write, not how I live" rule, his philosophical thoughts are revolutionary, but he was a pathetic man & his Confessions autobiography is the first book I gritted my teeth to finish because it was a school assignment. I'll never read Stendhal, or War and peace. Like for every other book or genre, you have to find what resonates with you. & give yourself the time to get into a story before rejecting it. Older books tend to start slower. Some have heavier language. But don't tell me you can't google, you lucky 21 century person. & don't tell me history doesn't matter (what are you doing here on this channel, lol) because we live by the consequences of it every day. Just treat every single new character as a new acquaintance who will take you on a journey & teach you a little bit about the world.

I enjoy many, for the rest... Cliff Notes. Yep, then you get the gist of the story and catch the punchlines... it was the best of times, It was the worst of times.

I can't get past the complicated sentence structure, the indirectness of the language and amount of work required to interpret what it's saying, and my personal exasperation about how utterly artificial and oppressive the society of the time was. It seems there was no possibility for a shred of authenticity anywhere in one's life with such a rigid social hierarchy, and I can't fathom how the aristocracy could witness such wealth inequality and poverty and not question their notions of manifest destiny. While many people romanticize Regency and Victorian era lifestyles of the aristocracy, all I think is how much I would have hated everything about living during those times- even if I were rich.

Excellent discussion. Thank you.

Thank you, love what you had to say. I have a degree in English but could not force myself to choose the literature track. Like you, I am big into Jane Austen. However, I did not care for books such as the Scarlet Letter and I found Great Expectations to be really creepy, not in a good way. Wished I had skipped reading it! Thanks for the permission to skip such books in the future. :)

I hated Silas Marner when I had to read it in high school, but it is now my favorite novel. Maryann Evans (a.k.a., George Eliot) was a superb writer. Classic literature was an 'acquired taste' for me. Cheers, Russ

Read books for the story. A good book has a good story. That's why _War and Peace_ is still around, still being talked about. I like detective fiction, so I think Raymond Chandler is classic literature, and I don't give a damn what Harold Bloom thinks (sorry, thought). What is classic is up to YOU!

I have a PhD in English, but I didn't want to study books I didn't like or study them in ways I didn't like (like applying Freudian theory to novels... *rolls eyes*). Some of my professors understood that I wanted to write about books like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings fanfiction, but with others it was SUCH a struggle to get them to understand that just because a book was in their canon didn't mean it was objectively BETTER than other writing or more worthy of study! I wrote my dissertation on why fanfiction was just as worthy of study as "great literature", published it as a book, and then washed my hands of being a literary academic! Some people thrive on it, but for me, it wasn't worth the fight.

I definitely think being in English lit and my teacher making us unpick and analyse every moment in a book takes away from the enjoyment of it. I love to read classics but I don’t want to think of them as social commentary but just for the plot

Something you enjoy is never a waste of time. It might be of other resources, but never time. You need to relax and enjoy some of your time.

Learnt why classic books are classic. So thank you for that. I get that you are satirical about George Orwell’s pieces but they are not about communism so much as about social programming

i'm now reading Emma and I'm enjoying it, but I'm gad i 've seen the movie or i would have been lost.

PUH-REACH!!! People should enjoy what they read. I've read almost every classic book I have any interest in and was forced to read several more in school that were just awful. I think the reason why more people don't enjoy reading is because of the "classics" they are made to read in school. They might be important, but if they kill someone's desire to read, is it worth it?

Great video as always. I cannot find the book you referred to about the prostitutes. Could you give the full title and author?

Brava!!!

Excellent video!

I read the Russians when I was young because I was told to. So, during COVID-19 I tried to reread The Idiot, and found it totally unreadable. I then moved on to Crime and Punishment and found it even worse. Thank goodness I found it place where I can admit it. Still love Jane Austin.

That's not quite what 1984 is about...

Scarlet Letter was historical fiction at the time, so not necessarily accurate on Puritan life, which was 100-150-odd years previously.

Marie Corelli….. classic writer for sure

I like classics but not all, like now are books that you think are good books and some that not if you like books that mention all the technical are not so technical things and actions maybe Julio Verne or lord of the rigs are your cup or tea, if you like comedy in games of sentences the Fastom of Castervill is a good option. And if you like to see a little bit of past time most of the classic will call you. Ps: Sorry from the broken English I am not a native speaker.

1984 doesn't teach us communism is bad, it doesn't teach us it was good. There is a reason it was banned in the US for "promoting communism" and in Russia for "promoting capitalism". Normally I wouldn't recommend the book, but please re-read 1984. You're way off on that one.

1984 doesn't teach that communism is bad, no. Good Lord. And as much as I love Austen, giving her credit for defining the template for all romantic comedies is simply throwing Shakespeare's work to the dogs, so, huh, no.

Reading classics doesn't broaden the mind. At least it hasn't mine.

If we didn't read classic literature we wouldn't understand your humor very well. It would be pointless to watch and therefore we wouldn't be awesome!

I remember arguing that certain books would go out of print if they weren't "classics" in high school. I think we need to reevaluate our definition somewhat- there's no reason that we should be maintaining a status quo that just isn't cutting it.

I would suggest reading specific books because it us important to read either the historical content or the ideas of the author which have relevance to modern society. Animal Farm and 1984 by George Orwell are Vital to read and understand, as id Brave New World. Brave New World gives a look of a future controlled by means of hedonism. We live in a world where everyone is seemingly seeking their own immediate pleasures but not thinking about consequences of those actions. Its incredibly relevant. At the sane time, Animal Farm perfectly illustrates how Communism eats a society alive, and 1984 shows the horror of totalitarian thought policing where you have yo toe the party line or else you get tortured or nullified. Both are extremely relevant today with people for some reason teaching communism us somehow not horrifying and media and politicians encouraging young activists to hurt people who don't think the same as them. Then reward them with more pleasure seeking. Most books you should enjoy reading. Those three books should always be required.

I loathe Hemingway.

Interesting video. I definitely gravitate toward classics, because I want to spend time on books known to be good in some way.

Hemingway - hmm, I certainly do not like the man, seemingly concerned about ethics in his characters (or is he?) but his own 'character' delighting in slaughtering animals in Africa. Dull macho. I too love cats.