Tips for Tackling Classics

[@AeroPortJoga]

I could not watch her videos since January. I'm rewatching them now and realizing,yet again, what a wonderful person and reader Jennifer was. Missing her very much.

[@danielmarlett1421]

The audiobook and physical book combination really helps me when the language is dense. My ear is much better at interpreting the meaning of an archaic phrase. Also it really helps when the bloody author writes in dialect.

[@jenniferbrooks]

Lol, I'm completely with you on dialect!

[@crazybooklady8682]

Thank you for this video! I'm still trying to find my way in reading classics, but I did join a classics bookclub with other Dutch people and I feel like I get more out of the books by discussing them together.

[@jennyyeh4730]

Bigger books on kindle - so true !! I flew by three musketeers because I wasn’t consumed by how much I had left. Also bigger books are heavier (harder to hold/read/lug around)

[@tarrynclaassen9581]

I have watched so many of these "Tips for tackling classics" type videos and I can honestly say that THIS is the video that everyone SHOULD be watching if they want to tackle the Classics. These are FANTASTIC tips!! And I totally agree, no book is for everybody - DNF. Thank you for this fabulous video. I also loved your audio book tip - I use the audio book when I struggle with pacing in a classic. I read along with the audio book and it keeps me on track. (there is a fantastic free audio book of Dracula on KZbin narrated by Steven Garnett which is an absolute treasure!)

[@chromesniper00]

The first part of this video, you really hit the nail on the head, what makes Classics so intimidating for many of us. I really agree with the DNF part, I think that 'pressure' you talked about only led me to forcing myself through the classic which only worsened my slump. I'm excited to take a crack at those DNF'ed classics once I'm ready to read them again. This was a really thought out video. I've been following your channel for a while and I do enjoy listening to your reactions and thoughts even to books I have yet to read. Nice work, Jennifer!

[@pamelatarajcak5634]

My tip is to read the Wikipedia plot synopsis (which are usually pretty comprehensive) which is the thing that helps me get the plot straight without having directorial choices interfere with my reading.

[@jenniferbrooks]

I often read the Wikipedia synopsis too!

[@SilenceAtTheLibrary]

For me, something that’s very useful, particularly when I’m reading difficult or demanding classics, I like to read chapter by chapter analysis on sparknotes or litcharts as I read. Especially when I read Dickens or I feel like I’m not getting any of the subtext that helps me to understand the story better and work on my critical analysis skills.

[@jenniferbrooks]

That's a great idea! That always helped me when I was reading for school--just to refresh.

[@zan8152]

I think the adaptation tip is a really great one. Or similar, get over the need to be surprised, look up spoilers, read the forward before the thing - knowing the plot, knowing what the overall arc of the thing will be is going to help *immensely* if other stuff like the language or the structure is difficult to get a handle on.

[@clarepotter7584]

Good tips. 🙂 Mine would be don't read the introduction, until after you've read the book. For classic novels these are not introductions as such but are usually an academic essay about the book. 1) If you're trying to avoid plot spoilers, it often tells you what is going to happen. 2) For example 'Charles Dickens uses... to discuss the social plight of the poor' will make a lot more sense after you've read the book. Often these short essays by experts in their field write in more dense language that we use day to day, using English language which you may need a dictionary for and the occasional French phrase that you may not understand and it's off to the internet for a translation, they are often harder going than the book and can be off putting.

[@ChristyLuisDostoevskyinSpace]

So many great tips!! And I agree with ALL of them! Lol

[@maryfilippou6667]

Youre so sensible with your tip on enjoyment!

[@deborahgrun4837]

I agree with you about the benefit of watching adaptations. I did this while reading War and Peace. I would read up to a certain point, and then reward myself with watching the same chapters performed in the 2016 mini-series. I really enjoyed it.

[@ArtBookshelfOdyssey]

Yes yes yes! These are great points.

[@TheNutmegStitcher]

Good tips. I'm enjoying Moby Dick so much, but I'm reading chapters between easier, lighter reads. And I read Bartleby, Benito Cereno, and Billy Budd beforehand, and these got me very excited for MD. I think I'll try Middlemarch on my kindle to see if that mental hurdle can be avoided. I've realized now, after having homeschooled my kids (now married college grads, so long time ago) using a rich classical curriculum, that unlike them, I was not ready for the depth when I was their age. They grew up with so much excellent children's lit and young adult classics that they were prepared for Swift, Austen, Dickens, Orwell, etc.in their high school years. I am just now enjoying some of the classics I encountered in high school and university. I was also biblically illiterate, whereas my kids knew it well. That also helps me to enjoy the classics so much more. Honestly, my English degree is worth far less to me than my current bookshelf, my kindle, and my library card are today.

[@SabineThinkerbellum]

Would you consider making a video about movie/ tv adaptations of classics? I often look at the BBC productions and don’t know where to start. Even more so if there are multiple adaptations of one work. A video from you would be awesome as a beginner’s guide.

[@gracetaylor7351]

I really enjoy your tips Jennifer I do some of your tips already I watch period drama before I read books and listen to audio books specially long ones .but I have listened audio books that dramatised audio books on audible.thank you.

[@elizabethaliteraryprincess]

Completely agree with the tip to watch an adaptation! I wouldn't have made it through Bleak House without the 2005 BBC miniseries.

[@biskit96]

I agree with you on translated classics being easier to read. The translations tend to be done later than the original published dates and very often by current translators.

[@edithcabrera2782]

I’m planning to read 12 short classics next year so a video on that will be greatly loved. About adaptations, I kind of do that for history, sometimes I read historical fiction before I go to the academic book and I find easier to relate to the times and persons, I did it for Alexander the Great and it was fun. 😀

[@jenniferbrooks]

I do the same thing for history! I always read a historical fiction first.

[@Veronica.Roni.V]

ok I really needed this video. I am in the camp of I want to try a few classics that I "feel" I will like because I really like the story line (based on a movie) This gave me some great ideas. I am very intimidated to even try. THANK you Jennifer, I so appreciate it.

[@KindredKeiths]

I’m happy to have found your channel. It’s nice to find someone with similar literature tastes and age proximity. I loved your tips and also enjoy sight-reading while listening to an audiobook. 🎉

[@Lu.G.]

Great advice! 👏🏻 Four or five years ago, I read A Christmas Carol for the first time and I loved it! It gave me the confidence to pick up more of his works which I do really enjoy (*love* A Tale of Two Cities). I'm in a huge slump right now and am listening to Lucy Worsley's biography of Agatha Christie which has been helpful. I do try picking up the book to read a few pages, but I just can't seem to concentrate. 🤷🏼‍♀ Thanks for the info! ❤

[@Thecatladybooknook_PennyD]

Maybe a tip and maybe not.... I'm trying to do the Dickens readalong with Katie. I was having a hard time getting into The Pickwick Papers so I decided to push it to the end of the line and go with one I'm more familiar with next month (Oliver Twist). So tip: choose a different book by that same author.

[@jenniferbrooks]

Great idea!!

[@sharonluvisi6069]

I am fairly new to reading classics. Because of how dense the writing can be, I've turned to reading while listening to the audiobook. I comprehend and enjoy the novel more, depending upon how good the narrator is, of course. Three excellent narrators (none of the whom narrated dense novels) are Thandiwe Newton (Jane Eyre), Dan Stevens (Frankenstein...fabulous!❤) and Rachel McAdams (Anne of Green Gables). For current releases, I won't listen to an audiobook memoir unless it's narrated by the author. The best memoir narrator/authors were Dave Grohl (The Storyteller), Chanel Miller (Know My Name), Kathryn Schulz (Lost & Found) and, saving the best for last, Leslie Jordan (How Y'All Doing❤).

[@nedmerrill5705]

"No book is for everyone." So true. Long classics. I feel that one doesn't pick up _War and Peace_ without a sense of unbending intent. Or, if they don't gird themselves for a long experience, they do so at their own risk. And use an ebook for a big book; it's easier to handle! Language in a classic - I prefer the language in a book such as _Jane Eyre_ over more modern literature. There's beauty in the old style. More people should give classic literature a chance.

[@jenniferbrooks]

I agree with you on style--I now much prefer a classic just based on the prose.

[@mrsmarfaasmr3259]

Great tips. It’s a good point that not every classic book is for everybody. I feel like I’m the only person who hated Anna Karenina. Not necessarily the book but the main character. I just felt like someone is constantly whining for 800 pages and not having a purpose in life. But people were shocked when I said it out loud as it seems to be everyone’s favourite classic book.

[@edithcabrera2782]

I didn’t like it either or the adaptations

[@jackiesliterarycorner]

I can't do an eReader, but an audio book helped with The Count of Monte Cristo. I didn't DNF them, but I didn't love The Bell Jar or Farewell Arms. I don't like Hemingway's writing or his characters in that book, and as for The Bell Jar I didn't connect with it, but I feel bad, because it is about a woman going through depression, and I should appreciate it. Part of me wonder if I breezed through just to check it off. I also reread some classics like Fahrenheit 451 and The Catcher in Rye just to see if I change my mind. As an adult I didn't love Catcher in Rye, because I didn't like Holden Caulfield. I'm planning on rereading Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn and I'm going to try The Scarlet Letter.

[@Roderic07]

i set a goal that i want to read as much sensation novels as possible...and/ or Gothic...Wilkie Collins is by far my fav author...i find Charles dickens bit more difficult to read, than Thomas Hardy for example...but i read everything...most are you recommendations too i still have War and Peace, the beetle, the chronicles of Barsetshire, Villette...and so on ...as ,long i am in the 19th C,...i am good to go

[@larrymarshall9454]

Jennifer, it would probably help the fear of "long books" by ceasing to call them that. You mentioned Count of Monte Christo (1000pgs). The infamous "big book", War and Peace is around 1200pgs. Compare this to Lord of the Rings (2064pgs), the Harry Potter saga (3422pgs), or the books upon which Game of Thrones was based (5232pgs and not done). These are books that LOTS of people have read, never worried about them being "long." It's all a matter of perspective.

[@jenniferbrooks]

Most people don't read series like Harry Potter or Game of Thrones in a single go, as if they comprise one book. So I think calling a single novel that is over 1,000 pages a long book is fine.

[@larrymarshall9454]

@@jenniferbrooks we'll have to disagree on that one, I guess but W&P was first published as a book in 3 volumes, just like Lord of the Rings. My Everyman's Library copy still comes that way.