Well, but guys don't read it, do they? I always had the impression that they were reading Tom Swift or something, and my, didn't that statement just date me.
My dad actually read Little Women out loud to me when I was a kid, and he cried when SPOILER SPOILER Beth died. That said, I had read Shakespeare, Twain, and Little Women from this list by the time I was 20. I was raised more on fantasy and science fiction classics than traditional American classics, and my tastes have stayed that way. :)
It was never covered in school. Nor was Holmes (well, maybe we read one short bit of him in elementary school). Shakespeare was only Romeo and Juliet, Julius Ceasar, and Hamlet. I think we had read a shortened version of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer.
I thankfully took an extra class just on Shakespeare at a summer camp since the way it was taught in school was pretty bad (one teacher had us skip every scene in Ceasar that involved Portia because she didn't care for the character.
As for Austen, I've never been able to get into her work. I got about 50% through Emma before becoming bored with it, barely made it a chapter with Pride and prejudice, and got a chunk of Northanger Abbey done before getting tired of it. Granted I never read anything by Verne, either!
I loved the Foundation trilogy so much as a teen, I thought it was the best thing I'd ever read, and it kept that place in my memory for a long time. Alas, I went back about five years ago and tried to reread it, and it really is drek. Alas. (*braces for defriending*)
Foundation is pretty dry in a lot of ways, but it really opened up the factual side of Science Fiction in the way that Verne opened up the imaginative side for me.
I didn't see the Niven movie until much later in life, but I still loved the idea of someone just deciding to walk out of his every day life and answer a challenge.
The more I think about it, the more Emma strikes me as the right Austen for teens, in spite of my love for Persuasion.
I think As You Like It is easier to understand over all. And I like Celia better than Hero; she has more gumption.
I have to say, Hero was a non-entity for me. I could never understand her. Beatrice though- just perfection. In this day and age, she would have been a leader of industry, or Meryl Streep.
Whilst Emma is probably easier for teens, I think the book lovers and more mature ones will prefer Persuasion- the passion in the last letter cannot but pull one in.
Around the World is pure wish fulfilment- for me, it's the little things which make it perfect
Also, I actually like Hamlet better than MacBeth, but in my weird skewed view, I think you actually have to be older to get Hamlet, even though the hero himself is barely out of his teens. Does that make any sense?
You're not the only one who thinks you need to have passed Hamlet's notional age to really understand Hamlet. That's why I plumped for Othello. I don't think Romeo and Juliet is actually good for teens. Too many see it as a "how to" rather than a cautionary tale.
I saw this recently on a somee-card: "Romeo and Juliet is not a love story. It is a 3 day relationship between a 13 year old and a 17 year old that caused 6 deaths. Sincerely, everyone who has actually read it."
I always thought they were acting pretty silly, myself.
There were a bunch of these I couldn't answer. Also, I think the a lot of this is situational.
Unlike you, I absolutely loved Huckleberry Finn, but it's a pretty accurate portrayal of a time period that I can perfectly well understand not everyone wanting to read about. Tom Sawyer, on the other hand, I think of a book for elementary school- it was fun when I was 10, but I had to reread it at some point later for school and found it simplistic and Tom rather needing a good smack.
By 20 is very broad. I would recommend completely different Shakespeare to a 12 year old than to an 18 year old. Ditto Austen. And frankly, given the age range, I'd probably say that if you want to read just one Defoe, skip Crusoe and wait till you're old enough for Moll Flanders.
It really is just the dialect that bothers me with Huck Finn. Tom Sawyer has some good moments, but I'm with you about him needing a good smack -- or at least a long time-out.
I read so much literature (and drek) in my teens. I also re-read quite a bit. I liked Little Women more when I was younger, for instance, than I did upon re-reading.
I have to say, Crusoe has its issues (and I adore Moll Flanders), but first English language novel makes it important enough to include for me.
Asimov will still be read voluntarily long after the last English Lit teacher has been purged.
Mark Twain did a better job of saying "THAT IS NOT PROPERTY, THAT IS A MAN" than anybody before or since.
Phileas Fogg barely manages to remember in time that each day going eastward was just a little less than 24 hours, and he had to set his watch a trifle earlier each day.
Lear's fate is a sharp lesson about flattery.
What do you have planned for Saint Crispin's Day?
Kate and Petruchio manage to get in everybody else's faces without ever doing anything her sisters could quite put a finger on. BEST. SIBLING. REVENGE. EVER.
If the new regime makes the reading of Jane Austen compulsory, then I will. I understand EMMA is comparatively short.
There is exactly one WWI poem that deserves to be remembered as expressing the life of a true and faithful soldier... under the command of a desk officer promoted for accomplishments on the field of cronyism:
COMMON FORM If any question why we died, Tell them, because our fathers lied.
I've never met a teen who was really gripped by King Lear, alas. I think it's a play that needs a bit more perspective. I love it, but I can admit I love it more as an adult than I did at 19.
None of Austen's books is long. I think they're important in many ways because they show how limited the prospects could be for women at that time.
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no subject
Date: 2014-03-12 06:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-12 06:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-12 06:53 pm (UTC)Granted, I haven't read a single book out of that whole list you have at the top of the page. :/
no subject
Date: 2014-03-12 06:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-12 07:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-12 07:46 pm (UTC)I do get what you're saying, but it's something I've found frustrating since I was a teen myself.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-15 03:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-12 07:07 pm (UTC)I thankfully took an extra class just on Shakespeare at a summer camp since the way it was taught in school was pretty bad (one teacher had us skip every scene in Ceasar that involved Portia because she didn't care for the character.
As for Austen, I've never been able to get into her work. I got about 50% through Emma before becoming bored with it, barely made it a chapter with Pride and prejudice, and got a chunk of Northanger Abbey done before getting tired of it. Granted I never read anything by Verne, either!
no subject
Date: 2014-03-12 07:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-12 07:30 pm (UTC)Foundation is pretty dry in a lot of ways, but it really opened up the factual side of Science Fiction in the way that Verne opened up the imaginative side for me.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-12 07:06 pm (UTC)So hard to pick an Austen- love them all except Mansfield Park.
Much Ado is my fave Shakespeare ever, though As You Like It comes a close second
And how can one not have a crush on Mr Fogg- in my mind he is represented by David Niven.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-12 07:38 pm (UTC)The more I think about it, the more Emma strikes me as the right Austen for teens, in spite of my love for Persuasion.
I think As You Like It is easier to understand over all. And I like Celia better than Hero; she has more gumption.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-12 07:59 pm (UTC)Whilst Emma is probably easier for teens, I think the book lovers and more mature ones will prefer Persuasion- the passion in the last letter cannot but pull one in.
Around the World is pure wish fulfilment- for me, it's the little things which make it perfect
*goes to dig out her copy*
no subject
Date: 2014-03-12 07:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-12 07:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-13 11:10 pm (UTC)"Romeo and Juliet is not a love story. It is a 3 day relationship between a 13 year old and a 17 year old that caused 6 deaths. Sincerely, everyone who has actually read it."
I always thought they were acting pretty silly, myself.
Sorry I missed the poll.
scruffy-looking bookpusher :-)
no subject
Date: 2014-03-13 11:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-12 07:29 pm (UTC)Unlike you, I absolutely loved Huckleberry Finn, but it's a pretty accurate portrayal of a time period that I can perfectly well understand not everyone wanting to read about. Tom Sawyer, on the other hand, I think of a book for elementary school- it was fun when I was 10, but I had to reread it at some point later for school and found it simplistic and Tom rather needing a good smack.
By 20 is very broad. I would recommend completely different Shakespeare to a 12 year old than to an 18 year old. Ditto Austen. And frankly, given the age range, I'd probably say that if you want to read just one Defoe, skip Crusoe and wait till you're old enough for Moll Flanders.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-12 07:42 pm (UTC)I read so much literature (and drek) in my teens. I also re-read quite a bit. I liked Little Women more when I was younger, for instance, than I did upon re-reading.
I have to say, Crusoe has its issues (and I adore Moll Flanders), but first English language novel makes it important enough to include for me.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-12 07:59 pm (UTC)Mark Twain did a better job of saying "THAT IS NOT PROPERTY, THAT IS A MAN" than anybody before or since.
Phileas Fogg barely manages to remember in time that each day going eastward was just a little less than 24 hours, and he had to set his watch a trifle earlier each day.
Lear's fate is a sharp lesson about flattery.
What do you have planned for Saint Crispin's Day?
Kate and Petruchio manage to get in everybody else's faces without ever doing anything her sisters could quite put a finger on. BEST. SIBLING. REVENGE. EVER.
If the new regime makes the reading of Jane Austen compulsory, then I will. I understand EMMA is comparatively short.
There is exactly one WWI poem that deserves to be remembered as expressing the life of a true and faithful soldier... under the command of a desk officer promoted for accomplishments on the field of cronyism:
The General inspecting the trenches
exclaimed with a horrified shout,
"I refuse to command a Division
which leaves its excreta about."
And certain responsible critics
made haste to reply to his words,
observing that his Staff advisers
consisted entirely of turds.
But nobody took any notice
No one was prepared to refute,
That the presence of shit was congenial
Compared with the presence of Shute.
For shit may be shot at odd corners
and paper supplied there to suit,
but a shit would be shot without mourners
if somebody shot that shit Shute.
(Clearly a candidate for the Cone of Shame.)
no subject
Date: 2014-03-12 08:31 pm (UTC)COMMON FORM
If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied.
I've never met a teen who was really gripped by King Lear, alas. I think it's a play that needs a bit more perspective. I love it, but I can admit I love it more as an adult than I did at 19.
None of Austen's books is long. I think they're important in many ways because they show how limited the prospects could be for women at that time.
I plan to be in London next Saint Crispin's. You?
no subject
Date: 2014-03-12 09:28 pm (UTC)Remembering Agincourt.
"...From this day 'til the ending of the world..."
Damn right.