"Making people suffer for the sake of it" is a terrific description of Hardy's treatment of his characters.

"I don't enjoy writing moral pap for the young. I do it because it pays well"- Louisa May Alcott 🤣📚

I'm reading The Woman in White for Victober because of your recommendation!

@nola3963

8 ай бұрын

I think I read that book twice. It’s absolutely beautiful 😭

@anthony19723

8 ай бұрын

Wilkie Collins is wonderful. What Fosco does to Marian who spies on him is sheer genius. Enjoy it because it just gets better and better.

This video was so fun! I loved you saying that there's a sense of shame with not loving a classic. I'm one of those rarities that came to Little Women in adulthood and completely loved it 🤷‍♀️ I enjoyed Dracula but have been scared to reread it in fear that the pacing would bother me the second time around. Loved this video!

I feel seen (isn't that what the kids say?!) 😆 Thank you for the shout-out! ❤ So, yes...growing up in Arkansas in the 60s and 70s, Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving...etc. were considered "Victorian" authors and sometimes, my post-menopausal brain forgets that that's not the case on BookTube! 🤓 I love that you even posed the question because the responses are fantastic! Some make me feel like I'm not alone in how I think about some of the Classics (most of which I have come to adore) and some _might_ have convinced me to steer clear of a few that I have yet to read. 📚

Jude the Obscure is one of my favourite ever books lol! I named my kitten after it. X

Heathcliff and Mr. Rochester make me worry that the Bronte sisters had a type. I surprised myself by actually liking Little Women when I read it. I was expecting to hate it. But I actually cried twice on public transport reading it. I wasn't entirely convinced by the ending. Oh, Dickens is emotionally manipulative as hell, but then aren't all writers? He's just incredibly unsubtle about it sometimes. See Oscar Wilde's comment on the death of Little Nell.

😊 you are getting so popular ....I'm so happy to see so many compliments and comments on your channel cuz you are spectacular ✨

Villette is one my favorites, mostly for personal reasons because I was going through a lonely time having just moved to a new place like Lucy. So it was more of comfort for me. And I’m scared to try Jude the Obscure. I loved far from the madding crowd and Tess, but I can’t imagine something more dismal than Tess 😟

@nat4465

8 ай бұрын

Oh and I enjoyed Lucy’s friendship with someone later on. Lucy is a lot more blunt and funny with her, from what I remember. But it is a small part of the story.

@laurenp2205

8 ай бұрын

Same, Villette might be my favorite novel of all time! Without exaggeration, I have never been so moved by a book (especially an ending) in my life-I thought about it extensively for months afterwards, and still think of it regularly. I do think you have to be in the right headspace, though.

@nat4465

8 ай бұрын

@@laurenp2205 It’s amazing when a novel stays with you like that. I’ll have to visit Lucy Snowe again sometime ☺️

I agree with every single mention in the video. 😄 I read them all as a teenager or at uni and disliked every single one of them. In retrospect it might have been because I read them as contemporary not as historical works of fiction. Now that I am revisiting them all 30 years later I can appreciate some of them a lot more as milestones in literature. (I don't think I will ever get over my Hardy trauma though.) And even if I still dislike them I love hearing what others see in them that I don't.

@Old_Scot

8 ай бұрын

I think being forced to read "important" literature at far too young an age contributes to everyone's dislike of major novels. We just don't have the emotional experience to understand what is going on until we're older.

I approached Wuthering Heights expecting some kind of Harlequin Romance. Wow, it was so NOT that. Sick, twisted, toxic characters-lots of fun.

I read "Villette" for the first time in college for a Victorian Lit class and hated it! Then went to England (many years later) and learned more behind the person of Charlotte Bronte, reread it and loved it! Part of the connection was also finding out that Charlotte suffered with depression in her life (as do I), and her depiction of Lucy Snowe as a character dealing with a mental condition was both relatable and monumental for that time period.

The dog scene really killed that book for me… I need to reread it but I just remember that and can’t.

Those books are mostly importent classics and should be read no matter likening them or not. Its just for a personal culture. Of course it is just my opinion. I am basically intrested in the spirit of time (zeitgeist) when they were written

I love Little Women but I didn’t read it until I was an adult. I did see the movie as a teenager though so maybe that is what makes me like it still lol! But I also really like the sugary sweet sentimentality. Maybe it’s a guilty pleasure ha!

It’s funny you say that about Dracula! I can definitely see why people don’t like it, but I personally went into it having never seen any adaptations and ended up really loving it! (I think also listening to the Bloodborne soundtrack while reading it elevated the reading experience like 100000% LOL)

Jane Eyre is one of favorites! I understand about the back end of it. It drags on. I don’t care about the Cousins. I just want Rochester and Jane together!😂 I think she could have shaved about a hundred and fifty pages off and it would be better. Dracula is ok. I agree with you. The first one hundred pages grab you. Then it fell off. Wuthering Heights just depressed me!! Though I loved the atmosphere.

Your channel is so underrated

I enjoyed reading Jude the obscure as well as The well-beloved. Yes the main character of The well-beloved was creepy but I wasn’t bored reading it. I wish you read Jude the obscure. I would really like to hear your opinion on it. I read every single book from Thomas Hardy and Jude is the character I got the most emotionally attached to from all of his books. It’s a very uncomfortable book to read though but I’d still recommend it. I think I’d still prefer weird or depressing books rather than syrupy-sweet than The Little women.

Thank you! I thought I was the only one who has tried to force themselves to read Dracula over and over, I get so bored and find myself endlessly stuck halfway through, but keep refusing to dnf it as I feel like I wouldn't be allowed to be a goth anymore 😅😂

@jenniferbrooks

8 ай бұрын

yes!! I thought the same--am I not a vampire fan anymore? lol

I’ve really enjoyed hearing the summation of your survey. It’s so interesting to hear how polar opposite people’s reactions can be to certain novels. Yes, here in the US I think “Victorian” is looked upon more as a time period.

The thing about Jude is not just the incredibly shocking, horrific scene (I was on an airplane when I read it and wanted to throw it so badly), but the fact that the main characters are just so, so stupid and we never get to understand why. There's just no explanation for it, so that part didn't really need to happen. The Well-Beloved is just gross. 😅

I love Dracula, but yeah the pacing is off. Villette I enjoyed much more than I expected as I'm not generally a Charlotte Brontë fan... but I think part of my enjoyment was because I was more 'used to' her by the time I read Villette, and was also prepared to try my best to enjoy what I think are her greatest strengths (banter, internal reflection, and atmosphere). My personal least favourite Victorian novel was Disraeli's Conningsby... partly because I couldn't sympathise with the elitest entitlement of the main character and partly because of all the politics.

Little Women was an absolute favourite of mine, back when I was 9 or 10 years old. It was probably - as you have mentioned here - the perfect age to read it, and I remember reading three times in a row, back-to-back, and like many bookish tomboys, thought that Jo was the coolest character ever. As an adult I am reluctant to return to it or reread it, because I don't want my memories of that book to be ravaged by the passing of time and the altered perspectives of maturity. I did watch the film adaptation with Wynona Ryder in it and felt a charming nostalgia seeing it on screen. But I have no interest in seeing the more recent one adapted by that feminist chick who wanted to alter the way some of the characters had been written by Alcott. I don't want any new "progressive" interpretations of a classic. I want it to be the way it was when it was written. I also prefer the BBCTV adaptation of Jane Eyre featuring Samantha Morton, over any other film version. I think she just carries the character the way I felt Jane appeared in the book as I've read and loved it over the years.

Give Jude the Obscure. Hardy was going through such pain when he wrote this book. Persevere in suffering.

Jude the Obscure, the worst!? I'm reading it now and loving it. It's certainly a great contender for most depressing Victorian novel, and the language and dialogue are definitely dated, but I wouldn't say it's objectively bad. Dracula, on the other hand... Actually, it's been a while since I read it. Foremost in my memory is the flippin cowboy.

@janetsmith8566

8 ай бұрын

The cowboy, Quimby, was my favourite character.

@seanoconnor2865

8 ай бұрын

I liked Jude quite a bit. Read it recently.

I have found My People. I immediately screamed out Bleak House, and if we're not being totally strict on Victorian definitions as he was an American author and this novel was published on 1 January 1902, The Wings of the Dove by Henry James. I thought I was alone with my very strong feelings about Little Women (and Good Wives), and completely agree about Villette too.

I like little women movie from the 90s

Yay, no Trollope or Wilkie Collins mentioned 😂

I enjoyed Thomas Hardy and Jude The Obscure was my last big one by him and someone spoiled it for me (can’t be too mad as it’s so old) so i still need to pick it up. It make me mad when Wuthering Heights is listed in best romance novels- it’s a novel about spite! I agree about Dracula and Little Women completely. Fun video!

@seanoconnor2865

8 ай бұрын

I liked Jude the Obscure and hated Wuthering Heights.

From what I’ve read so far Jane Eyre and turn of the screw my absolute least favourites. I loved the beginning of Jane Eyre (so sassy and bold) but then quickly becomes reduced to being meek and timid. Then her love is like 50 whilst she’s 19 and just calls her ugly throughout. So not for me but enjoyed the gothic atmosphere. And the turn of the screw! Eeew. The writing… I couldn’t so many dashes I did not even know what was going on and found it quite boring.

Dracula: I had a similar reaction to Frankenstein as I did to Dracula. It was a bit of a let down. It’s because one doesn’t go into these books blind and oblivious to the characters’ entire worlds. They are both um, monster icons of pop culture and everyone understands the basic rules that surround them. Reading those novels is like a form of reverse engineering. Novel Dracula and Frankenstein are very far removed from the icons they are today. I rereread these books with all that in mind and found them much easier to enjoy. Jude: I loved Jude. It questions all the social norms of the day and then, nothin’ but death. I find those killing off your characters and making everything miserable choices by an author hilarious. Hardy could have done anything with them but he chose what he chose. I love King Lear and Hamlet for the same reasons - everything turns to poop in the end. Misogynist Characters: why hate a character when they are just being true to themselves? A douchebag’s gonna douche after all. If an author has a character being misogynistic it’s a choice the author made for a reason. Perhaps your comment about misogyny got me going because I recently read American Psycho which is insanely graphic, and filled with racism, misogyny, gratuitous cruelty, and - oddly - pretty good fashion tips. Somehow, it’s also one of the most well written, and funniest books I’ve ever read; I have no idea how the author pulled this trick off. I’m very glad I read American Psycho but I don’t think I’ll ever want to reread it as some of the scenes were excruciatingly difficult to get through. I would recommend it to someone only after they filled out a long questionnaire. Thanks for making videos eh.

When I read Jude I loved the opening (reminded me of Great Expectations) but the scene of Arabella throwing offal at Jude turned me off so much, it was hard to continue. There are several revolting scenes, but the next is when Father Time hung the kids on the door and left the note "Done because we are too menny." I've read a lot of Zola (the end of Gervaise in l'Assomoir is horrific), but Hardy is right up there. It's so much fun to read all of these comments and reactions.

@marytumulty4257

8 ай бұрын

Unfortunately, that was the ultimate spoiler for anyone planning on reading Jude. 😢

I agree 100% about Villette! Wuthering Heights IS my favorite book of allllll time. It’s so messy & toxic, but the characters sucked me in & the writing is gorgeous. Thomas Hardy is an absolute no for me, so terrible. I DNF’d Dracula 2 times and am currently reading it, and about 100 pages away from finishing. I’m low level enjoying it- I don’t hate it, but i can see why people would. This was such a fun video topic!!

@anthony19723

8 ай бұрын

I totally agree about Wuthering Heights. I read it in a day and couldn't put it down.

Mine was Wuthering Heights 😂

_Wuthering Heights:_ The book you love to hate. I think it's great, too. For Hardy, I've only read _Return of the Native._ I liked it quite a bit. I was expecting a downer, which I was expecting from Hardy, and I wasn't disappointed in that. It seems like every random thing that could go wrong for the characters you were rooting for, did go wrong. People showing up at exactly the wrong time, people assuming the worst in people who were actually intending the best for them, people working at cross-purposes. Every damn thing that could go wrong, did. The definition of "Victorian Literature" ... you might want to check out my current read, _The Europeans_ by Orlando Figes. This was the first period of history where literature became _much_ more cosmopolitan. Translations and publishing became much more widespread. French and Russian literature were available to the English audience, and vice versa. (Dickens was loved in Russia.) There was a lot of cross-influences going on at the time. The Figes book is a really interesting read.

I hate Hardy. The Bronte sisters are my girls 😂 I first read as a teenager though. Wilde is absolutely iconic. I read Little Women at 12ish years old, but I have no interest to go back as an adult. For me, it was a 6.5/10.

This is why I hate Hollywood’s portrayal of both Wuthering Heights and Anna Karenina! I don’t think Emily Bronte or Tolstoy meant for those relationships to be put on a pedestal like that. We shouldn’t desire their relationships. Hollywood has missed the point of Cathy & Heathcliff and Anna & Vronsky!

I just started reading Dracula 🧛‍♀️ lol….. I love your videos always Jenny❤

I really enjoyed this video! Fun topic. I totally agree about Middlemarch. I'm surprised it wasn't on the list as either best or worst. I was so bored by it. I read Thomas Hardy for the first time this year. I read Jude and Two on the Tower. I really love his writing but I need to get to more of his work to form a better opinion.

Thank you!

I’m sorry I’m about to rip in to one of your favourite books, but I’m surprised nobody said Great Expectations because I honestly loathe and despise that book with every fibre of my being. The characters range from flat to caricatures, the general premise is absolutely ridiculous, the plot makes no sense, the dialogue is repetitive and his writing is just god awful. I vividly remember a horrendous simile where he compares the raindrops on a windowsill to a handkerchief covered in a goblin’s tears (what??). It’s my least favourite Victorian book, and one of my least favourite books of any period that I’ve ever read. The amount of adoration and acclaim that Great Expectations receives is beyond comprehension to me, and I’m just completely dumbfounded by how well loved it is.

Yaaaas Jude! I am not alone! 🤣

I agree with what you had to say about Dracula and Little Women. I love Little Women, but it is definitely because I grew up reading it. The only Elizabeth Gaskell novel that I didn’t like was Sylvia’s Lovers. That seems to be an unpopular opinion, though!

Jude the Obscure was pretty awful. Tess would be one for me. Her life went from bad to worse until it just ended. Elizabeth Gaskell, who I love and wrote Wives and Daughters, Cranford, North and South, wrote Ruth and a couple of others I hated and wanted to throw them across the room because of the endings. Give me Sacrine and syrupy sweet.

I'm kinda hearbroken, I'm seeing some of my favs here 🙃

I loved Little Women but read it as a teenager and Dracula I studied at uni which I think helped me enjoy it and when as a class we saw the 1992 film soon after we laughed most of the way through because it was so over the top compared to the book. I don’t hate them but I have struggled with two much loved classics, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Daniel Deronda. Both had female characters that were too saintly for me and the discussion of religion got too much. Having said that I think rereads would improve the experience of reading them especially as George Eliot is one of my favorite Victorian authors. It’s funny how when you dislike a classic you think it must be you, not the book!

Your amazing

Oh, interesting. I've never heard American authors described as Victorian. I'm actually kind of surprised I haven't seen that more. I'm about to read Bleak House and I'm really excited for it. A Tale of Two Cities is one of my favorite books ever. I've only read Silas Marner from Eliot. I didn't like it and don't think her others would appeal to me.

Wuthering Heights is so divisive .I really didn't like it either time I read it. I think Emily is over rated as an author. Great video, Jennifer x

Dracula is a difficult read. Personally, I think an audiobook version with male and female narrators brings it to life.

I can deal with saccharine content, but It depends on my mood. Jude the Obscure would be on my list and Dracula was a disappointment. Jekyll and Hyde and Sleepy Hollow were also disappointments. Pop culture can potentially ruin the appeal of some classics, because it can hype them up and you assume it will live up to that hype, but it ends being not how pop culture portrays it.

Flatland by Edwin Abbot. I got nothing out of that book whatsoever xx

@bryangarcia5599

8 ай бұрын

I found that it lacked dimension.

There's no reason to like Hardy. There's no reason to torture yourself. I stopped with Tess. That was bad enough.

I hated Gaskell's North and South but she wrote short story collection about ghosts that are not bad. However, I am not sure that I would trust her as an author. Hardy's Jude the Obscure would definitely affect people's mental health. It was so emotionally painful and it didn't need to go there. If a book is really long, it had better be fun, or an adventure, or readers are learning something that improves their opinion on a topic. Middlemarch was so long, as was Bleak House. I am glad that I have come out on the other side of these books. But I am so glad not have them on my TBR anymore! I could have stayed in the world of a Tale of Two Cities and I loved Wuthering Heights, even though the two characters want different things from each other and can't get there together. Cathy and Heathcliff are both toxic characters who will only harm anyone else around them. I hated Rochester in Jane Eye but it makes me want to read the story of Mrs. Rochester in Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, which I do not own yet. This was interesting!

Has anyone read Shirley by bronte? I have read a few chapters of it and it seems so boring. Does it get any better?

@christinakaras6452

8 ай бұрын

Yes, it does! Persist.

Wives and daughters wasn’t finished so hard to say .😊

I’ve never read Jude the Obscure but I watched the movie Jude (mostly just because Kate Winslet was in it and I love her) but it was awful and I didn’t understand why it was even made. (Let me be clear: the story was awful. The acting was fine).

@seanoconnor2865

8 ай бұрын

read Jude recently and think it's worth the read. excited to hear there's a movie with Kate. I love her, too.

I DNF'd Bleak House too. I don't think that it is necessary to write long books for length only. Granted, in Dickens's time, authors were paid by the page and there were no other entertainment options but as great a work of art as Bleak Hose is, I still think that the digressions did not serve the book well (in my opinion). While I can appreciate Dickens, I ended up not caring about the characters and found the author too tedious. This is my opinion about all art forms that go on for too long. Time is valuable, especially nowadays. People and things that command too much of it without a nice return for myself vex me. Now, I loved David Copperfield. Dickens needed that many pages to tell the story and it is worth our time. But Bleak House? No. This fact is prevalent in too many of his novels and that steers me away from him.

You said there was only one Gaskell, I can add to that - I think it was a case of missed expectations for me, but North and South, hoo boy. Everywhere people talk it up as "Pride and Prejudice but with better class/political consciousness" and.... it's just not. More like P&P with the melodrama turned up to 11, everyone is sick and dying for the shock factor, and the labor dispute is not really done justice by the end. I think you may have said you like this one a lot, so sorry :D - I'm definitely interested in other Gaskell eventually, but not sure if I'll come back to that one.

Oh, nonsense; these are all masterpieces, or near enough, anyhow. If it's a bit of _real_ belletristic bumwipe you're after, try giving _Irene Iddesleigh_ a go, or, if you're feeling especially intrepid (and if you can find a copy), _The Heirloom_ - whose own author affixed a preface which essentially serves as an apology (albeit a seemingly passive-aggressive one) for the substandard novel which is to follow. Oh, and it's a triple-decker, too (in fact, it's one of the very last; which may be its sole point of historical interest, apart from its limited notoriety amongst niche literary circles). As awful as _Irene Iddesleigh_ may be (and it _is_ awful), at least it's mercifully brief, clocking in at less than 200 pages. So have a go at _those,_ and then tell me all about how much _Dracula_ sucks, and how Eliot bores you.

Read Wuthering Heights in high school and I hated it. A couple of years later I read Jane Eyre and loved it. Go figure.

@seanoconnor2865

8 ай бұрын

agreed