"Classics" you like that nobody seems to have read

Paradise Lost is great. And yeah, I kinda wish more people would remember that such thing as a Villain Protagonist exists...

Out Of The Dust (which not coincidentally, I also made the page for) is a really great Newbery Medal novel (much better than most of the recent winners), but almost nobody I've met seems to have read it.

I have! I loved that book as a middle-schooler.

I tell people that my favorite book ever is Crime and Punishment and everyone sort of nods with a look on their face that screams "I have no idea what that is.". And those who do know of it generally don't get why a rather shy and feminine type likes a morbid, dark, and bloody novel by some Russian guy anyway.

I was very pleasantly surprised to see P.G.Wodehouse mentioned here. He is awesome, and no one seems to even know who he is!

edited 7th Jul '15 5:10:25 PM by rusalka95

I absolutely adore P.G. Wodehouse, and I know how you feel. Talk about a severely underappreciated humor writer!

The Alchemist for me. I love that book.

edited 7th Mar '16 1:04:32 PM by TrixiePixie

To the person who thought they had it bad when people shook their heads when asked about War of the Worlds - try talking about the First Men on the Moon.

edited 25th Mar '16 10:26:32 PM by AgentTaffy

I love Wodehouse myself, but, while I've never met in person anyone else who's read his books, if the internet is to be believed he's far from underappreciated. He's frequently held up as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, humorists of the 20th century. I've yet to read anything by him that I don't like, and, while I love Jeeves and the Blandings novels, my favorite story by him is Honeysuckle Cottage. Go dig it up if you've never read it.

I had a college professor once who gave me the "what the hell are you talking about" look when I mentioned Crime in Punishment. He'd never heard of Dostoyevsky. Rather depressing, really.

edited 28th Mar '16 10:08:13 PM by Robbery

It's tough to know how to approach this question, because in the largely demotic culture we've become—and especially in a milieu centered on pop-culture the way TV Tropes is—most classics are underread to a degree that would once have seemed unthinkable in a circle of people who liked to discuss books.

For most of us former lit majors, it'd probably be easier to list a beloved classic that anyone we met has ever read. (And I apologize if this seems like bragging or showing off—it's not. Believe me, having been required to read books because of your curriculum that you probably would never have known to pick up otherwise ... that doesn't provide much grounds for feeling superior to anybody.)

edited 11th Apr '16 8:01:09 AM by Jhimmibhob

We have a large market for commercial literature now, and there's much less stigma attached to enjoying it.We have lots, lots more stuff to read now than was once the case.

Even with that being said, if a "best-seller" sells a million copies in the US, that means only one person in three hundred has read it. Kinda puts things in perspective.

I know this thread started years ago but I just found it and the first post was about Tigana. I read it a few years ago and thought it was pretty good (not sure I would still like it today though).

I read one Wodehouse book and laughed out loud for long parts of it.

Can Ursula K Le Guin's books be considered classics? I think they deserve it, but I don't know anyone who read The Left Hand of Darkness, and probably not even the Earthsea series. I think both are amazing.

Half the people around me grew up on the Moomins tv series but l've never met anyone outside my family who even knows the books exist. They're full of funny, heartwarming and insightful moments and I also love the illustrations (by the author). Now that I think about it, a lot of the children's book I grew up on fall into this thread's category. Probably because I used to read all the time, and my school had a very limited library, I had to try basically everything.

edited 10th Apr '16 7:15:29 AM by CrownofDawn

The only Le Guin I've read is Left Hand of Darkness, and I read it for a class. It is quite good, but for whatever reason it never particularly made me feel like seeking out anything else by her. Her works are considered classics in the Science Fiction genre, I'm pretty sure.

I've heard of the Moomins (I feel safe in saying that they're pretty much unknown here in the US). I first encountered them in The Encyclopedia of Imaginary Places, which had an entry for Moominland. I've learned a little bit more about them since, and have a friend I grew up with who is now a Swedish citizen who loves them.

Wodehouse is great for a number of things. Beyond sheer entertainment value, his works are often an interesting look into the history of popular commercial fiction. His first published work was when he was 21 in 1901, and he kept writing (prolifically) until his death in 1975. His stories frequently feature writers, of both popular and "serious" literature, and nobody escapes mockery. For his part, Wodehouse enjoyed thrillers and mysteries, found the "bug-eyed monster" science fiction films of the 50's and 60's to be hilarious, and enjoyed television. One early story he wrote, featuring the nascent Bertie Wooster character Reggie Pepper, had an artist who was a successful cartoonist trying to hide the fact from his wife, who was a well respected serious novelist. When all is revealed, it's learned that she's a huge fan of his strip, and writes cheap romances in addition to her serious work herself. Wodehouse was a giant talent, and had not a snobbish bone in his body.

edited 10th Apr '16 9:18:54 AM by Robbery

The Moomins are as obscure as they come in the U.S. The books can be found if you look, mainly in big cities, and it's an American company that's taken on the job of reprinting Tove Jansson's Moomin comic strip from the 50s and 60s - which ironically seems easier to find than the actual books...

I've actually only ever read the first and I've never finished it. I shall probably have to some day.

Tove Jansson also wrote some adult fiction that's generally considered pretty good.

edited 10th Apr '16 9:33:56 AM by Aldo930

My parents read the Moomin books to all of us so many years back. I liked them despite the slightly off science of the comet one (back then I wanted hard science fiction, hear me). There's a deep charm to both the drawings and the odd plot points. In fact I can recall at least three formats in which we had various books, so it had some popularity around us. I'll have to see the animation someday.

Ahhh! Tove Jansson was the best. I read the Moomin books when I was little, and I live in the United States... my favorite was Moominvalley in November because it was just so dreamlike and disturbing! God, but that was a woman who knew how people work. Rare gift, that!

I've read nearly all of Dashiell Hammett's writing, but most people only know Spade as Bogart. That bugs me because Spade's set up as the quintessential first-person wiseguy hard-boiled detective when The Maltese Falcon was written in the third person and Spade wasn't even all that hard-boiled! I mean, ferchrissakes, Hammett's earlier character The Continental Op much better exemplifies the trope, but hardly anyone's ever even heard of Red Harvest or The House in Turk Street though these were both adapted and re-adapted into movies and TV shows over the years... it just ain't fair!

Just bugs me that the guy got screwed over so many times in his life and people don't even remember his literary legacy 'n' all. Ah, Gad, this was longer than I meant it to be but I'm just quite a bit into crime fiction. :^)

Having read some of Jansson's other work... I'm going to say it, she was probably one of the last great authors of children's fantasies. Next to Michael Ende.

She was also a pretty good cartoonist as well. The Moomin comic strip is sort of a European Pogo - it's pretty satirical.

Oh, yes, most of the great authors of children's fantasies are little read these days, going back to the man who invented children's literature, Hans Christian Andersen...

My theory on that is that Popculture Osmosis made people think of the hardboiled detective as a combination of Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe (who does have the First-Person Smartass) narration. Probably helps that Bogart played both of them. Along similar lines, the stereotype is frequently an alcoholic (more Marlowe than Spade) and has a Girl Friday (true of Spade but not Marlowe).

Oh! That's true! Still, it would be nice to see "lowbrow" writers like Chandler and Hammett recognized more in fancy academia for their contributions! Same thing with Asimov and Bradbury...

Ray Bradbury! Yes! I absolutely adore his work. He had a terrific authorial voice.

The only work of his anyone seems to know is Fahrenheit 451, and almost always they get what it's about wrong.

In any case, I prefer "Usher II" from The Martian Chronicles better... Especially when read by Leonard Nimoy.

Holy crap that was gorgeous! I'd never heard that one before, thank you so much! :^D

I've done my job, then.

I absolutely love Stendahl's rant on what was lost by burning all the great works of fantasy, horror and sci-fi. You can sense that Bradbury himself is speaking through him.

why is it that no one has apparently read Cat's Cradle

are they crazy cause that book is a classic

By Kurt Vonnegut? I've read it. I have to be in the mood for Vonnegut, though, because he can get depressing. Bradbury can as well, if you're reading a book of his short stories without any space inbetween.

Yeah, Hammett is primarily remembered for Sam Spade and, to a lesser extent, for Nick and Nora Charles. He wrote two Spade short stories (which weren't really anything particularly special, but pretty good for all that), even though he hadn't intended to revisit Spade, because of popular demand. Unfortunately Hammett, being a pretty serious alcoholic, made a lot of his own problems; HUAC didn't help any, though. Within the mystery genre, Hammett's a giant, as is Chandler. Chandler was a terrible snob, though an excellent writer. Plot was not really his strong suit, though he excelled at atmosphere and character