MY LITERARY UNFAVOURITES: 10 CLASSICS I WISH I LOVED BUT DIDN'T

[@lenoraberendt750]

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is in my top 3 favorite novels of all time. And I adore Captain Nemo. We all enjoy different books, and that’s a good thing! 😄

[@adam8822]

well said 👍 live long and prosper 😁🖖

[@williambavington5392]

I read this only a few years ago and quite liked it. I found Tristan's criticism a bit odd though. Sure, the lengthy descriptions of unfamiliar terms for the various kinds of sea life dragged a bit and I thought the bit of invented undersea geography at the Mediterranean unnecessary but what was wrong about his description of undersea trips in diving suits? Jules Verne was fascinated by the modern technology of his time so did his best to get that side of things right. I understand (see Wikipedia) that the first translator of the novel into English was an expert on mediaeval French, not contemporary technical French and didn't realize that some obsolete French words has been repurposed for this new technology, so he translated them to inappropriate English terms. Maybe that has carried through into later translations.

[@zibilanna]

I loved your Mohican in 5 min with the high-viz jacket 🤣. I actually devoured the Leatherstocking stories when I was about 13. Haven't been able to re-read them since, though. There is a certain sweet feeling of disappearing into an adventure which I remember from reading as a teen. Too much adventure was not possible then. I kind of miss that. I'd like to hear more about appreciating vs enjoying.

[@EmersSarah]

Thank you!!! I feel validated. "Hard Times" was the first Dickens I ever read. It was summer reading for my Freshman year of High School. I was put off for years.

[@jallen418]

The Trial? Lol. All the things you mentioned are exactly the point of the novel- the "delirium." One of my favorite of all time. This is of course subjective.

[@lindahenderson1625]

This was brilliant, Your honesty is so refreshing. But then, pretension is not your style, which is why I am a subscriber. I also enjoy your humor. Thank you for your channel. Best wishes. 🇺🇸🇺🇸

[@karenirving7088]

I have been trying to read Moby Dick for 50 years 🙄I'm nearly half way. I hope I make it before I die 😂

[@Yesica1993]

I'm not alone! Yegads, that book HATES me. It's defeated me over and over. I could kick myself because one time I got about 1/3 into it before I gave up. I should have just pushed through. I even bought one of those abridged children's editions and I could barely get through THAT. I couldn't tell you what I even read. Why does it hate us so?!

[@karenirving7088]

The good thing about Moby Dick is I hate it so much I can pick it up any time and with a sense of dread know exactly where I'm up to.

[@Yesica1993]

@@karenirving7088 Hahahahaha!

[@sherryjoiner396]

I found the second half a little better, but dang it was hard to get through!

[@carolrost9245]

Moby Dick was my dad's favorite book...and out of our whole family only my daughter has read it.

[@4034miguel]

My particular taste: 0:44 - Time Machine - Love it and continue to love it, read it in Spanish and English 4:29 - The Black Tulip - I was underwhelmed. Read it in french and that did not changed the experience. 7:40 - Hard Times - Plodding, hard to finish, read it in Spanish. I do not want to read it in English. 11:09 - 20,000 Leagues - Genius. I read it in french 14:23 - Last of the Mohicans - Hate it. Read it in Spanish 18:45 - The Trial - I got terrified. I loved it but could not read it again. Good to catch PTSD for me. In Spanish 23:00 - Sense and Sensibility - I enjoyed every page. Read it in English. So elegant prose. 26:53 - The Age of Innocence - Not read it yet. 31:06 - Hound of the Baskervilles - After 10 times, I stop counting the times I got back to this fantastic book. Real Genius. 35:30 - Titus Andronicus - Have not read it yet. Cheers

[@eddielew2292]

Age of Innocence is one of my all time favorite books. It’s about a dying society trying to preserve its antiquated rules. In addition, Wharton’s writing style is exquisite. All her stories deal with important topics. Don’t let the beauty of her writing obscure her dead on observations of decay and mutability of society. I read almost all her fiction novels and am amazed that under the gentility and flouncy costumes, there is a laser steal edge of observation of unwelcome reality. Age of Innocence has a cruel core under the depiction of privilege.

[@anitas5817]

I agree! I love novels that portray the difficulties and constraints of upper class society and this one does so brilliantly.

[@TheNutmegStitcher]

Well said ❤❤❤

[@hissykittycat]

Appreciate your comments on this book!

[@pmarkhill519]

So glad to hear of another “Age of Innocence “ fan! That book literally haunted me for 10 years, because of what the life did to Archie as a person over time. He couldn’t go back at the end. Had something inside him die?

[@margaretinsydney3856]

I agree. I love the moment in the novel when we move ahead in time, and everything seems to open up into light and freshness. That was captured beautifully in the film.

[@kellysober9352]

Tristan thank you so much for your content. You are an absolute JOY!! You have become my favorite booktuber!! All of your content is so genuine, sincere, enjoyable, and honestly funny. All the while I educating me and making me a better human. Thank you so much. ☺️

[@lenoraberendt750]

You had me cracking up throughout this video. It was so refreshing to hear your honest comments on these classics. So glad you made this video. Good job! 😄

[@karenirving7088]

My mother used to read us Sherlock Holmes before bed. As a child The Hound of the Baskervilles was my favourite. I still love it.

[@vesch5083]

I'm not a fan of Little Women. I know, I can hear the gasps. It's even worse because I'm an American. I think the book is fine, but you won't ever find it on my favorites list or even my liked a lot list

[@bridgetsmith9352]

I loved the 1994 movie and have watched it many times over the years, but I struggle with the book, too.

[@theoriginaledi]

That's an excellent assessment, in my opinion: It's fine. It's a little (maybe a lot) saccharine for my taste and I don't think I'd ever re-read it, but I don't actively hate it. Meh.

[@apollonia6656]

There are some novels I think are more (or were, at one time) for children and this one is, imho. Mind you, it wouldn't stop me reading these type of books because they can be fun and make you feel happy !

[@anirbandutta1371]

I love Hound of the Baskervilles because of the atmosphere of Baskerville. It's my favourite of Sherlock Holmes.

[@randolphpinkle4482]

I've tried to read Wuthering Heights three times. I usually get about half way through when I toss the book aside again. There are so many things right about the book, but I can't stand Heathcliff and Cathy. Such unlikable characters. I just couldn't give a toss if they lived or died.

[@apollonia6656]

I detest all of them; maybe dislike Nelly but not detest.

[@margaretinsydney3856]

Agree about WH. I have a really beautiful edition with really Gothic drawings that are just gorgeous. But I just can't read it, although I pick it up and look at the pictures once in a while. I had a matching copy of Jane Eyre, but my dog ate it.

[@donrobbins4970]

The characters are all dysfunctional.

[@carokat1111]

Read it twice. utterly loathe the characters and therefore can’t enjoy the book at all.

[@apollonia6656]

@carokat, We are the Few but there are good reasons we do not like WH: it's depraved, depressing,nasty and so many other negative words ! 😊

[@kathrynmillardstudio]

You make me want to read eadith Warton now for the ending 😂😂😂😂😂 thank you x

[@carlabamford9154]

Jules Verne and HG Wells were cutting edge for their time. I also got hung up on the 800,000 year old matches just sitting there. That would be like touring some old ruin of an abbey and finding an old bottle of wine or a quill or something. Except way more impossible. But it makes me think of Andy Weir’s The Martian--someday a third grader on a moon colony will read that and say “NO WAY potatoes can grow in that environment! Sheesh, do they think we’re stupid?” And THANK YOU for giving me permission to not like some of the books I’m supposed to like! It’s like I’m embarrassed to tell people.

[@kenjordan5750]

Journey to the Center of the Earth was the first "adult" book that I read, totally independently. AS

[@dominic1230]

It is Josef K. not Franz K. ;) and more important: the story did NOT take place in germany! The story doesn`t happen in a particular place. That is very important. AND it is NOT clear whether Josef K. did or did not commit a crime. Thats THE essential point of the whole story. As a small hint: read The Brothers Karamazov. Kafka got the idea for The Trial out of this book (along with biographical problems he was dealing with). The book is more about what the readers lay into it AND probably it was about a "moral crime" and about the Last Judgement. The book is very deep. If you criticize it please do a better job reading.

[@WhatstheSizzle]

Jane Austen (to me) is a hard read. Mark Twain is a hard read. So is Willie Shakes. By hard read, difficult to smoothly glide over the words. Dickens is hard too. I spend a lot of time reading Agatha Christie, John Grisham, Stephen King & Sherlock Holmes (Doyle). I can have respect for the classics & my fav is Count of Monte Cristo. But sometimes you want a nice escape read instead of a struggle.

[@apollonia6656]

Sorry, I am getting so fed-up with UTube typos that I have to delete comments.....yes, not a bad idea: thanks ! 😂

[@carlabamford9154]

I promise it gets easier! My very first classic ever was Tale of Two Cities. I picked it because it was short. I had zero understanding of how people traveled around, what the French Revolution was all about, and I got stuck on every third word. Like “waistcoat” WHAAAA? I just kept plowing through and slowly the story started to make sense. By the end I was understanding it mostly although a lot of it was lost on me. Don’t try too hard to understand it, enjoy what you can, bleep over the rest, and soon you’ll see why they are called Classic. It’s like the finest food you’ve ever tasted.

[@primalious9548]

Breaking my heart with "The Age of Innocence", but I get it, it could use more pages.

[@joanwerthman4116]

Mark Twain wrote a beautiful send up of James Fenimore Cooper. It mentions several things that make no more sense than the box of matches you mentioned. He also hated the flowery prose. And the essay was so funny, our little teacher had trouble reading passages to us in High School because he couldn’t keep from laughing at all the wonderful barbs.

[@JohnPrepuce]

I love the book, and have read it like 3 times, but I guess it's not for everyone. Some of the action scenes kept me on the edge of my seat. It is the oldest book on his list, except for Titus, but that's not a novel. Twain wasn't completely off base with his critique, but his stuff can be a bit rubbish too. Puddn'head Wilson? Joan of Arc? c'mon.

[@CornbreadOracle]

I love that essay; it is absolutely perfect

[@eflat6522]

Fenimore Cooper's literary offenses by Mark Twain

[@margaretinsydney3856]

Yes! I found that essay before I ever heard of Fennimore Cooper. I would never be able to take him seriously. I especially love the Indian's name, "pronounced, I suppose, Chicago." Hikarious.

[@deirdre108]

MT's essay "The Literary Offenses of JF Cooper" is a brilliant read and far better than anything Cooper himself ever wrote.

[@karmaforall18]

Kafka was Czech but he wrote in German. There are many translations of his work, but I believe in all of them a lot gets lost, especially humor. I do recommend the short stories, though.

[@tanja9673]

As a German who studied literature I have read The Trial several times. I didn't like it the first time but now I adore it. I think you can't appreciate it when you are looking for a whole, rounded story but have to read it scene by scene. Kafka is always better this way. When you read it that way you can see in every sentence and every scene what a genius he was. The last sentence of The Trial (in most editions) is one of the best closing sentences I have ever read.

[@nostradamus1162]

my HS teacher used to say that kafka's sentences are structured like the streets of Prague 😅 every sentence that man wrote was beautiful

[@williambavington5392]

I was inspired to read Kafka's major works by a friend I had at the time who was a fan. I understood (I am a STEM guy, not a literature 'major', so I might be wrong) that The Trial and The Castle were a complementary pair, so I read both. My take (I am a religious non-cognitivist rather than an atheist but I don't have a lot of time for religious thinking, so I expect I shall get torn off a strip by someone here for this) is that they are complementary novels about religious thinking. The Castle is a metaphor for the striving towards the Ineffable, a quest which is unachievable because it always remains out of reach. The Trial is about the tragedy of the human condition. We are innocent but we are mortal, so are condemned to die and perhaps before the advent of modern opiates, often to a very slow painful death. This is unconscionable but it is going to happen anyway. Thus, K, at the end prefers to delude himself that he is guilty, when he knows he in fact innocent, as to believe his death is somehow justified (i.e. there is moral order in the universe; there is God) is preferable to accepting it as a meaningless fate in an amoral universe.

[@tommcmillan2300]

Age of Innocence totally put me off Edith Wharton. Somewhat surprising because I seem to remember enjoying Ethan Frome. Love your videos though, Tristan!

[@michaelldennis]

I’ve read most of these and have similar thoughts on many. I think what you say is correct. These aren’t inherently bad works; they just don’t work for you. Whether it’s plot or pacing or theme or character or writing style, we all react to art differently. I love the idea that we can honestly come to a different conclusion and both be “right” in our own individual taste. I think it’s important to try out different genres and time periods and authors to better know what we like and why because that experience of merely finding one’s own taste is growth. And I think this type of video - “negative” as some may think it - is helpful. Sometimes we can know someone better by knowing what they dislike as much as knowing what they do like.

[@Dinadoesyoga]

Well, this was loads of fun to watch! 😅 The biggest blasphemous one for me on here is The Hound of the Baskerville. I loved it and the whacked out dog. That being said, the way you bashed these great works still made them sound fascinating. I can't wait to read 20,000 Leagues and The Last of the Mohicans now. 😂

[@bridgetsmith9352]

I put The Black Tulip on hold because I want to read it now. 😂

[@Dinadoesyoga]

@bridgetsmith9352 right? How did he make all these books he hated sound incredible?

[@gabrielacanova4625]

Am I the only one who believes On the Road and Catch 22 are the most overrated books in the history of books?

[@apollonia6656]

Catch 22 bored me to tears. On the Road ? Never read it.

[@josephwalsh7546]

How can Tristan find Time Machine slow and boring and love (Yeech) Moby Dick - the slowest most boring pile of whale trivia imaginable ? ( I could have called it a pile of something else and been more accurate )

[@joanwerthman4116]

Sense and Sensibility was her first published novel. Northanger Abbey was her first completed novel, but published posthumously. Pride and Prejudice was a rework of an epistolary novel. So Sense and Sensibility was the first she thought ready for publication.

[@larrymarshall9454]

Are you aware that Dumas used assistants to write a good deal of his texts, in much the same way that Patterson does today? That might explain the change in the book you talked about.

[@carlabamford9154]

I had no idea that was even a thing back then.

[@maddystelczyk1728]

Yes, exactly! Of the books you mentioned and I have read, we are in accord! Couldn't stand The Time Machine (and the Island of Dr. Moreau), Sense and Sensibility (bloody Marianne!) And while I mostly enjoy Verne, 20 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea was just an algae and plankton filled snooze fest. Age of Innocence was kind of middling and I actually didn't like the ending either. Sorry 😂 Haven't read The Trial but have read The Metamorphosis and other Kafka short stories and am not a fan, to be honest. Weirdly enough, he depresses me.

[@georgeohwell7988]

The Trial became the sentence for me personally.

[@apollonia6656]

Ditto.

[@lewessays]

Gulliver travells, the time machine, war of the worlds, pride and prejudice, Jane Eyre, Moby-dick and Arabian nights ........these books literally trigger my depression for me personally.

[@champagne.future5248]

I love Hound because I enjoy the gothic atmosphere and touch of the supernatural. I wish Conan Doyle had written more stories with those elements in them. I don’t care as much for the realism and the technical details in Sherlock Holmes, although I appreciate that they provide a solid framework for the stories that keeps them from becoming typical Victorian melodrama and cheap thrillers.

[@samuelstephens6163]

I love Time Machine and Hound of the Baskervilles. Have reread the latter multiple times, not something I do for many books. The Sherlock novel I like less is The Sign of Four. Talk about unrealistic! All the treasure hunting just for an extended flashback. I do love Mary Morstan becoming Watson's wife, but never liked the twin brothers or Jonathan Small or any of the rest of it particularly. Hound, on the other hand, has an incredible amount of moving pieces, all used in the course of the solution, and is a gothic novel and also a science novel and also a mystery. Yeah, the half brother thing isn't totally convincing, but hey, it's so much fun up until then.

[@wyominghome4857]

Arthur Conan Doyle actually wrote Hound eight years after he'd bumped Sherlock off. He'd planned it as a mystery with just Dr. Watson as the detective figure, but it didn't work, so he put Sherlock back in and set the story four years before Holmes' demise at the Falls. It proved so hugely successful Conan Doyle revived Holmes a couple of years later. Still, Hound really is Watson's story. You didn't say why you didn't like it, but it is the best of the novels in my view. The other three are plodding and dreary.

[@pnutbutrncrackers]

My very favorite story in the Holmes corpus. Loved it and chose it as a text for a Language Arts class I taught (and they loved it too).

[@pouetpouetdaddy5]

Finally, someone who dare to hate The trial. Try 4-5 times, never finish. Time machine too was boring and confused af

[@Tolstoy111]

It's not clear what order the chapters are supposed to be in. Apart from the first and last.

[@pouetpouetdaddy5]

@@Tolstoy111talking about Time machine?

[@Tolstoy111]

@@pouetpouetdaddy5 The Trial!

[@pouetpouetdaddy5]

actually, its apply to Time Machine too lol…never get the fuss around the trial, an unfinished book by someone who didn't want his books published after his dead

[@Tolstoy111]

@@pouetpouetdaddy5 Kafka wanted all of his work destroyed. But his best stuff is probably the shorter fiction.

[@ia2625]

The time traveler finds the matches in an airtight case in a museum's technical chemistry of the past exhibit, so they're not anachronistic, it just shows how advanced the preservation of the past has become in the future. Plus it's very much relevant that he has to walk to the past first in space by going to a museum, before returning to it in time with his time machine, considering the whole premise is time being a dimension that you can travel in like space :) I disagree on Weena as well. It's important to keep in mind that despite her showing affection and gratitude to the time traveler she is essentially an alien from a race which has lost its selflessness (they barely respond to Weena almost drowning) and its concept of writing and perhaps abstraction ("...the bare idea of writing had never entered her head. She always seemed to me, I fancy, more human than she was, perhaps because her affection was so human.") so she's not going to fulfill our character expectations the way a human does. She is more akin to a needy cat, which I find eerie and sad in itself.

[@sid1gen]

Excellent response. I think Tristan is being honest when he says that he does not enjoy sci-fi. I'm like that with fantasy (and I'm reading a fantasy series right now, together with the stories of Lovecraft): it's very hard for me to get into the fantasy story, to believe it, to submerge myself into it. Tristan may have an issue with the suspension of disbelief necessary in sci-fi because, as a genre, it does not appeal to him. But your comments on The Time Machine are spot on. Thank you.

[@elinakattelus7397]

Kafka's Trial was so difficult read for me. Don't know if It was the translation though. But I remember bit where I finally got drawn to the story...and then the chapter suddenly ends with a remark that chapter was unfinished by author and I got so angry I almost burned the copy in midsummer bonfire.

[@teaguebates5807]

Great video, great topic. Buuuuut… Time Machine is a timeless classic. And sometime tonight a posse of Morlocks is going to pay all the haters a visit for trashing their amazing story. Can I suggest a topic? I’ve always been interested in: Books I Adored but Noone Else Did.

[@xaviercrain7336]

Kafka wrote in German and remember he was Yiddish and with some languages ability to play off against each other that it is your distance from both the languages he uses and the translation that turns you off…remember Don Quixote’s humor took forever to be rendered into English according to E Grossman

[@johnclaybaugh9536]

I can certainly appreciate the fact that not everyone likes one book or another. If we all liked the same thing, life would get borong.

[@mj2495]

What? Not Finnegan's Wake...

[@apollonia6656]

Not rea!ly readable so , tough to comment !😂

[@MrPleers]

As a Sherlock Holmes fan. (Last year I finished all 60 stories for a second time), I have to (respectfully) disagree about The hound of the Baskervilles. 🔎🐶

[@apollonia6656]

😮 I shall read one story and see how I feel about trying another.

[@MrPleers]

@@apollonia6656 The hound of the Baskervilles wasn't written with Sherlock Holmes in mind. In fact Arthur Conan Doyle had already killed off Sherlock. But he needed a detective for this story. So he decided to use Sherlock again. That is why the story is different from other Sherlock Holmes stories.

[@apollonia6656]

@Mr.Peers, I will read a very short story as a taster and maybe try another 😊 Maybe that is why it is A.C.D's best known because Sherlock isn't in it 😂

[@Katia656]

I agree with you about most of them. I love your sincerity. Thanks Tristan , a great video.👏🏼👏🏼🇧🇷

[@Video81501]

S&S really surprised me. However, I don't think I've actually read it. Only seen the movies.

[@vanessasperling]

Oh, wow ... thank you for the comments on "Time Machine," "Hard Times," "20,000 Leagues," "Sense and Sensibility." I've always felt bad about how much I dislike them. When you pulled out the Sherlock Holmes collection and explained it would be one story, I said to myself: "Oh, Tristan. Please say 'Hound of the Baskervilles.' Please. Please. Please." And .... boom. I HATE that story so much because I was expecting a GOOD Sherlock Holmes reveal and this one was just horrid. I loved the point you made that many "classics" are only described that way because of the writer. Oh, and yes to more of the bear thing with "Last of the Mohicans" (which was another blah for me, too).

[@apollonia6656]

I don't feel sorry for disliking a book. We all have different tastes and what a boring 🌎 if we all liked the same books.

[@louisetaylor354]

I would say that I thought the screenplay that Emma Thompson created was better than the actual book. She changed a few things in the plot and I thought it was actually better. Still, I didn’t hate ‘Sense and Sensibility’ the book.

[@mollyfarrell.]

Oh just stop😂

[@lynneforbes4420]

Emma Thompson made an excellent job of Sense and Sensibility apart from casting Hugh Grant as Edward Ferrars - his whole performance was toe- curlingly dire and Emma Thompson’s cringeworthy exaggerated crying scene at the end completely ruined it for me.

[@bridgetsmith9352]

I agree with you! Love the movie! The book, not so much.

[@apollonia6656]

I agree with the casting. Wish Alan Rickman was a bit younger. However, Emma Thompson didn't look in her very early twenties, p!ease ! No wonder she altered a few things......should have said Rickman was Ferrars!

[@PatriciaCrabtree-wm8xd]

The Hound of the Baskervilles is so boring that i'm jealous of readers who enjoy it because I love Sherlock.

[@justonefyx]

I'm currently reading 'Shirley' by Charlotte Bronte and feel the same way you do about Sense and Sensibility.

[@apollonia6656]

Sorry, had to delete! Took me two weeks to finish Mansfield Park not Shirley. Kept reading the same page, then the same paragraphs, then the sentences ....b..o..r..i..n..g.

[@emmaa4595]

*stunned into silent horror* HG Wells the time machine is one of my all time favourites..... 😂 We all have our own tastes and happily so

[@rishabhaniket1952]

I was stunned as well. The book is brilliant and has both scientific and literary merit in abundance. Although on the pleasure scale it might score very low for some people.

[@emmaa4595]

Agreed, when you think it was published in 1895 and it dealt with topics such as morality, evolution, gender, knowledge and it's protection, philosophy and society. I do love sci fi so I know I'm biased but to me it's prescient and important 😊

[@williambavington5392]

It is one of the novels which means a lot to me as well. I read this in my teenage years when I also saw the film adaptation and have to disentangle them in my mind. TV, film and literary SF and science really inspired my choices in life. I think Socialist Well's depiction of the Eloi as effete and purposeless was a warning that a polarised society could eventually be as damaging to the elite as it is to the dehumanised machine-serving working class. Which was something Fritz Lang missed in Metropolis and George Orwell failed to grasp in The Road to Wigan Pier. He only spoke of future people 'lifting weights' to keep their muscles which would be an anachronism in a society of machine servitors when criticising Well's The Shape of Things to Come and so failed to appreciate the dangers we are now coming to terms with the impact of an overly sedentary lifestyle to our physical health. The part I particularly remember in the book was near the end with the Time Traveller's trip into a very distant future with a cooling red Sun (a modern understanding stellar physics was some years away) and a biologically limited world of large, almost immobile crustations, long after mankind had disappeared. I found that very elegaic and was reminded of this a few years ago listening to an audio version of City At World's End by Edmond Hamilton

[@mysunnyreadingcorner6777]

Just to reassure you, I read The Trial in German and it is not funny. I will never re-read it because it felt like being stuck in a dream where nothing makes sense and you know it is a dream but you still cannot wake up.

[@paulhammond6978]

I guess, Kafka just had a different sense of humour!

[@theoriginaledi]

Very interesting!! I actually read it (in English) because my German friend said it was hilarious. I read it and was my face was like: 😐 I thought we must have read completely different books.

[@eddyerrol]

I was a huge fan of Jules Verne as a boy, and read a lot of his books, but I don't have much interest in re-reading any of them as an adult. I enjoyed 20,000 Leagues, but I can understand your criticisms here. That said, I would like to point out that Verne was extremely poorly served by his early English translators, and the 19th century translation of 20,000 Leagues by Lewis Mercier (which is by far the one most commonly found in bookstores, even today) is particularly bad. Mercier made a ton of errors, and cut out something like 20% of the original text. Verne isn't exactly a master stylist, nor great at characterization, but Mercier butchered Verne's prose and removed some of the things (including a lot of Verne's humorous dialogue) that give character to his work. The anonymous translation of Journey to the Center of the Earth (again, still prevalent to this day, unfortunately) is also atrocious. So if you read Verne in one of these bad translations, that might account for some of your distaste. Verne has a better reputation in continental Europe as a storyteller because people have access to better translations, or to his original French. Walter Miller has an interesting annotated version of 20,000 Leagues in which he shows all the horrible things Mercer did to Verne's text. Even in a good modern translation (fortunately there are now several out there), 20,000 Leagues wasn't really one of my favorite Verne books as a boy. My all time favorite was the Mysterious Island, followed probably by Journey to the Center of the Earth (in a good modern translation!) and Around the World in 80 Days.

[@susanfisher4344]

I love Sense and Sensibility although I agree that Marianne is annoying but that makes her a good foil to Elinor. I was most surprised to see The Hound of the Baskervilles on your list. I liked it but I agree that everyone’s taste is different. I am always embarrassed to admit that I didn’t like Don Quixote. I found it incredibly boring.

[@apollonia6656]

The Don is on my TBR list but I have the on Molleau translation and if I remember I didn't get on with it....annotations everywhere as usual !

[@angeladeel2529]

I haven’t heard you talk about Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. Did u like that book?

[@lyramidsummer5508]

Just picked it up 3 books for £6 at The Works.

[@apollonia6656]

WOW! Hope you didn't waste you're money ! Didnt mean to be rude, but I read Pasternak and relied on the film instead. Viv Groskop has really funny things to say about the novel and Russian writers in general. My ribs were aching reading Viv and her comments about Tolstoy and his eggs !😂

[@marypladsen5231]

I read Zhivago not long ago and thought it was ok = it's not a big doorstop of a book, and it's about the Russian Revolution so it's not like the other Russian classics. I kept waiting for the vase of sunflowers with the petals dropping but it wasn't there.

[@apollonia6656]

Sir David Lean had his little whims. The film was filmed in Spain and all that "snow" was fake. As Viv Groskop rightly points out there are so many coincidences. Well, I would add Dickens and his coincidences in nearly all his novels !

[@angeladeel2529]

@@apollonia6656 my husband was Russian so he came with all the great Russian novels. I did quickly figure out a common theme in many was adultery. But Russians seemed to still love the adulterous characters.

[@angelaluz405]

I really liked The Black Tulip...so there's one of us out here. LOL I also love Titus. However, I do agree about Marianne! She's horrid!

[@AuburnAfterglow]

Yes to all this!

[@Vazhaspa]

You should rather say which Sci-Fi you like!--- In fact I read both H. G. Wells' Time Machine and Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea when I was teenager and I was mesmerized by them to the point that I was encouraged to go read more realistic literature such as War and Peace where I discovered a new universe. As for the Kafka's Trial, it is exactly the absurdity and irrationality that create the theme of the novel and create Kafkaesque style.

[@LindaStitches]

Uh-oh, you did risk much mentioning Sense and Sensibility, a favorite of mine. I’m still subscribed, though! Love to hear your takes. By the way, a” Sense and Sensibility in five minutes” performed by you would definitely be a lot of fun! 👍

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

Yes, I thought I could ruffle some feathers with this one. 😀 I forgot that I did the book in 5 minutes thing. Are you referring to the spoof videos? 😀❤️

[@beckysteffka2434]

Enjoying your video while having afternoon coffee.....I love the Hound!!!😅 Sence and Sensibility I also enjoy.

[@kdj3000]

A Study in Scarlet is the Holmes story that drives me crazy. The part of the story that is the flashback just took me out of the story and I was never able to recover from it.

[@Tolstoy111]

It’s largely a western!

[@michaelldennis]

I think Doyle is in his element with the short stories vs a full length novel. I disliked A Study in Scarlet more than the others. Hound is fine but Scarlet is abysmal to me.

[@ATruthUniversallyAcknowledged]

Oh no I literally just picked up The Black Tulip! 😂 Also, I agree with you on Marianne. I adore Austen but I want to shake Marianne and tell her to get it together!

[@SylvanianWorld]

I read Black Tulip a few years ago but remember liking it, so there is a chance . . . 🤞

[@ATruthUniversallyAcknowledged]

@@SylvanianWorldphew! You’ve given me hope!

[@carlabamford9154]

I think Marianne got destroyed by that sleazebag and was so traumatized that she would have married a scarecrow if her family wanted her to. She went from being unbearable to unconscious.

[@tammiejo]

I just finished Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and 20 pages in I couldn’t wait to be done with it and that feeling never left me. I understand what he was doing here, I understand the characters are supposed to lack depth to an extent- but I couldn’t abide the characters or the writing. It was his first novel, I’ll try one more of Hemingways more mature works to avoid casting premature judgment, but my God what a slow laborious read that was for me.

[@deirdre108]

Hemingway had his day and fortunately that day is gone. His novels read like overlong newspaper articles. He was one of the first (learned from Gertrude Stein) popular writer to use that truncated, abbreviated style and he has to be recognized for that, however it really isn't that good. He was better with his short stories, some of which were quite good but like you stated his character development was nil and he never learned how to create a believable female character.

[@brianhaas1154]

Completely agree about Hard Times. I've read about 8 Dickens' books, and it's easily the worst.

[@terrysbookandbiblereviews]

I really like that you are willing to share what your least favorite books are on KZbin. As an American though I love the Last of the Mohicans. Great story. I prefer the movie of Hounds of the Baskervilles the book version is okay. Great video!! Please do a video like this on your other channel?

[@andreablamire5509]

More of a modern classic, but I don’t like 1984 and I’ve had to teach it more times than I care to think about.

[@apollonia6656]

I agree re: 1984 Read Brave New World and thought that even worse.

[@ευφροσύνηΠολίτου]

The Catcher in the rye is a big no

[@GiraffeGreens]

Please do a video on Sense and Sensibility! Im reading it right now.

[@traceyarnaud8433]

I totally agree about The Hound of the Baskervilles! I read it in sophomore year in high school and thought it was the most ridiculous drivel that now, 50 years later, I still feel the aggravation I felt back then. I do disagree on Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. I loved it. The Austen that I didn’t like was Northanger Abbey. I understand what Austen was doing, but I couldn’t get into it at all. Also, I couldn’t make any progress with Last of the Mohicans. I also found the movie unwatchable which shocked friends with crushes on Daniel Day Lewis!

[@juliae.8237]

Awww, no 20,000 leagues under the sea? It was a bit of a knife through the heart, but I get we’re all different, yada-yada (walks away contemplating the meaning of life…).

[@apollonia6656]

😅

[@gordianknot5625]

I know you didn't ask for it but I thought I'd give you the classic that I most struggled to get through. It is George Eliot's "Romola". Eliot's genius is readily apparent but I just couldn't get into the minutiae of Italian history.

[@alisonanthony1228]

I know it's heresy, but I absolutely can't stand Dickens or Thomas Hardy. I've really, really tried to love them because their books are considered classics for a reason, but I just ..... don't.

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

Ots not heresy, Alison. No authors or works are universally enjoyed. I find that, overall, all of the Classics are enjoyed by a significant number of passionate readers, but even those who don't enjoy them can appreciate why others do.😀👍❤️

[@karenbird6727]

I completely agree with you about Titus Andronicus. I will never read it again. Once was enough.

[@apollonia6656]

Never read it and unlikely to do so.

[@gabrielaalvarez259]

Great video again! I am curious about something.. Have you read Les misérables by Victor Hugo ? If so, what do you think of it ? Regards from Madrid, Gabriela

[@apollonia6656]

Is this an open to all of us ? Hope so. Personally, I loved it. The only think about Hugo which annoys me is his digressions. In LMs it is sewers of Paris, in The Hunchback of Notre Dame it is architecture. Phew ! However, once he gets back to the story he so rudely interrupted, it is a wonderful tale.😅

[@zaygezunt]

This was great. Would anyone else like to see Tristan list the classics he thinks are perfect and why?

[@amyh7673]

Oh goodness. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I tried reading it in a hard copy. I tried it as an audiobook. I tried it as an ebook. Still haven't made it past the first 1/3.

[@apollonia6656]

I was reluctant to watch Finding Nimo because of his name....poor thing😥

[@carolynhunt7333]

Try the old Disney movie with Kirk Douglas, James Mason, Paul Lukas, and Peter Lorre. And of course the real star--the giant squid. It haunted my childhood.

[@leedsdevil]

Tristan, I think that Titus Andronicus, for the modern audience, is much better seen performed than just read. The Anthony Hopkins film is like a train wreck - you are continually repulsed, but you can't turn away from the mayhem, especially the denouement at the feast (somewhat famously put to use in the Vincent Price shlocker, Theater of Blood). Perhaps, like Dumas, Shakespeare needed a quick guaranteed pay-off.

[@scarletowl8337]

Really enjoyed this episode! I love the Kate Bush song Wuthering Heights but sadly the book not so much 😟

[@gailcbull]

I love the Sherlock Holmes stories but my least favourite of the novels is The Valley of Fear. I cannot get through that thing no matter how hard I try. Doyle is so eager to vilify workers trying to improve their working conditions that they come off as comic book villains. It makes me want to shout a very rude word very loudly.

[@ainwena7595]

The Last of the Mohicans was made into a movie starring Daniel Day-Lewis. Probably better than the book based on what you have said.

[@Anna-wh1zn]

The book I am lukewarm about, although everyone else simply adores it, is...Jane Eyre. I've read it 3 times, hoping to catch whatever magic everyone else is bewitched with, but it's just not a book for me. I find the very high levels of melodrama drown out the literary qualities. I'm sure it's one of the most beloved books out there, but after 3 attempts to appreciate it, I think it's fair to say I'm done with it. 🙂

[@davidcosta4949]

I agree with all of these except The Age of Innocence. Wharton can write about marriage and society better than anyone. Something like Pride and Prejudice is absolute crap compared to Wharton’s style. Yeah, you heard it here first, folks. I do like The Custom of the Country and The House of Mirth slightly better than The Age of Innocence.

[@veronicamaria2730]

😆 I love both "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" and "Hound of the Baskervilles." Sometimes where I'm at in life makes a difference in how a book impacts me. "The Day of the Jackal" greatly influenced my reading preferences as a young adult and forward in life. I've been reticent (read there 'afraid') to reread it lest it not captivate me the way it once did.

[@stunik156]

Great video Tristan. I loved ‘the trial’ for all the reasons you disliked it 😂.. I thought it was really disorientating, delirious and disconcerting (While I was reading it it reminded me of a more ‘adult’ Alice in wonderland) loved your review and your opinions of it though. Great channel Tristan

[@apollonia6656]

Had The Trial been written in the 1960's, I would have suspected he was having a bad trip on LSD

[@DefaultName-nt7tk]

I enjoy your enthusiasm both positive and negative 😊. How do you like Anthony Trollope?

[@apollonia6656]

Only ever read The Warden" and enjoyed it. Who else likes it, then ? Me and my big mouth ! 😅

[@DefaultName-nt7tk]

@@apollonia6656 I am listening to the audio version of The Duke's Children, and enjoy the reader as well. I did not realize earlier that this was the last volume of the series. Now I might check out the first one once I finished and found out what happened to all his (the Duke's) children. 😂

[@apollonia6656]

DeFaulltName, I thought it was one but last. No matter. Never read any of the others (Barchester series). This stood out and it paid off. Enjoy 🙂

[@Bobbiewilhelm59]

What? Not Joyce’s Ulysses!

[@13tuyuti]

He either hasn't read it or he likes it.

[@Bobbiewilhelm59]

@@13tuyuti 😆

[@apollonia6656]

Yes, I was shocked to the core 🤔 Same for the missing Lolita (if only!)

[@kitjank]

I was with you the whole way until you mentioned Hound of the Baskervilles. That one hurt, you may have heard me crying. 😆 It's one of my favourites. But I know you are a fan of Sherlock as we just read him in the Patreon group so I can forgive you this time. 😄 Great video!

[@bridgetsmith9352]

I agree with you about Sense and Sensibility. It just falls flat for me (although I love the movie!). Hound of the Baskervilles, however...😭😭😭 I love that book! It's so atmospheric and fun to read! But, we can't all love the same classics. The one classic I struggle with is Dracula, although I have read it twice, and I hated it less the second time around. 😂

[@rishabhaniket1952]

Finally someone who shares my views on DRACULA 😅. For a book considered to be the mother of horror thrillers it is surprisingly dull. A slog fest.

[@andreawebster-blanco579]

I agree about The Last of the Mohicans. I made myself read it..because it is considered a classic and because I loved the movie with Wes Studi who plays Magwa. It was a real slog. I still love the movie.

[@mikelpelaez]

I adore the trial (my favorite novel so far, but I haven't read that much yet), although I think it's important to have in mind that it's an unfinished work, that's why it feels so abrupt at times

[@pouetpouetdaddy5]

and Kafka didn't want to be publish after he died. Maybe we should have listen his wishes.

[@nanno8483]

Sence and Sensibility? Very shocking, and I could not disagree more lol

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

I'm so sorry 😀😋❤️

[@MichaelLewis-q8q]

😂superb book review .love your honesty

[@cathyallsup7731]

Although I love Jane Austen, I agree with Tristan on Sense and Sensibility. Also, I would have Wuthering Heights on the list.

[@apollonia6656]

Without a doubt. I absolutely detest Wuthering Heights for so many reasons.

[@theoriginaledi]

Oh my gosh, yes. While I do appreciate its artistry, Wuthering Heights might possibly be my #1 most despised classic novel. I do not understand the love it gets, or why so many people think of it as a romantic book. Ew.

[@apollonia6656]

@theoriginaledi, I am in the same boat as you; cannot call it a romantic novel. It actually repulsed me. All the characters seemed evil or simple mad, or lacked moral fibre. Cath married two first cousins; there is child abuse and some really weird goings-on. Always wondered why it is considered as a romantic novel....where is the romance ? Catherine is mentally fixture and Heathcliffe is a sadist.

[@apollonia6656]

PS: Sorry. UT ...not fixture but disturbed. I wish I could correct after completing a comment....have to erase or PS. Apologize.

[@tommonk7651]

Hound of the Baskervilles? Blasphemy….😂

[@apollonia6656]

Blasphemy 😂😂

[@rebeccavaughn8897]

I’m American. Last of the Mohicans sucks. Basically everything by Cooper stinks. Watch the movie. Skip the book.

[@ratherrapid]

When T says skip it, gotta respect! Only read The Trial--intriguing and memorable on 1st reading and underwhelming on areread 20 years down the road.

[@dagmoon]

I am so happy to see this video, what a relief! Definitely there can be a gap between "appreciation" and "enjoyment". For me, I firmly appreciated but did not enjoy the classic FRANKENSTEIN.

[@apollonia6656]

My comment always makes people laugh when I say that I thunk Frankenste's monster is sad. Same goes for Quasimido in THoND.😓

[@kathleencahill6571]

Titus Andronacus was the first mad-slasher movie, INHO. gore, gore, gore and more gore. Now I know why you will almost never see it in production.

[@graciecrossing3169]

I totally agree about Last of the Mohicans - although the movie is a 10/10 for me!

[@sandrawhite1101]

I’m a huge Sherlock Holmes fan, but I have to agree with you on Hound of the Baskervilles.

[@chrystalfromalaska]

Yes! I am half way through sense and sensibility and keep waiting for it to get good to find out why everyone loves it and I am just struggling! I loved Jane Austens Northanger Abby so I had such high hopes.

[@rebeccavaughn8897]

Tale of Two Cities was a difficult read for me. I found Great Expectations and Oliver Twist much easier and more enjoyable. I’d recommend those as a first Dickens.