Most Overrated Novels of All-time?

[Velocity_Boy]

Hey guys.....

In some recent conversations here, I made an offhand remark about how I thought a classic well-known novel mentioned in a post was hugely Overrated. Just my two cents, of course. But it started a bit of an exchange on the topic of Overrated books. I've always found this subject to be hugely entertaining and providing for some spirited discussions in the past.

So how about it? What allegedly classic Novels do you feel got way too much kudos or acclaim? What Novels come to mind for you when you hear the term Overrated?

Allow me to throw in first......

 

The Great Gatsby.....F Scott Fitzgerald

100 Years of Solitude.... Gabriel Marquez Garcia

The Scarlet Letter

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance...... Robert Pirsig. (I'm not sure this was a novel...in fact I don't think it was. But so profound was my utter dismay upon reading it...being a lifelong motorcycle devotee...and given the absurd amount of accolades it received over decades...I just have to list it.

Confederacy of Dunces.... John Kennedy O'Toole

Angela's Ashes

Moby Dick.... Herman Melville

 

Your turn.

Thanks.

Edited May 7, 2018 by Velocity_Boy

[Strange]

Animal Farm - George Orwell. I thought it was trite and predictable.  Cheap caricature rather then cleaver satire.

4 minutes ago, Velocity_Boy said:

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance...... Robert Pirsig.

This book is the closest anything has come to that cliche of "changed my life". But it certainly changed my attitude and approach to a lot of things.

[Velocity_Boy]

2 minutes ago, Strange said:

Animal Farm - George Orwell. I thought it was trite and predictable.  Cheap caricature rather then cleaver satire.

This book is the closest anything has come to that cliche of "changed my life". But it certainly changed my attitude and approach to a lot of things.

Wow....really?

How so?

Care to elaborate on what thoughts or ideas in it you found profound or compelling?

Thanks!

[Sensei]

7 minutes ago, Strange said:

Animal Farm - George Orwell. I thought it was trite and predictable.  Cheap caricature rather then cleaver satire.

In the real world "pigs" (analogy from book) were uneducated people mostly.. the first generation of peasants who learned how to read any text.. If it would be sophisticated cleaver (clever?) satire, nobody would hear about book, nobody would understand it, except intellectual community.. Message has to be understandable by receiver (adjusted to current level of knowledge) to be useful..

 

[iNow]

The Bible 

[Velocity_Boy]

1 hour ago, iNow said:

The Bible 

Just so, iNow.

And one could doubly piss off the godists when listing their holy book here on my list by restating that it is certainly eligible for inclusion,xsince we are talking about Overrated works of Fiction! Ouch.

[hypervalent_iodine]

The Picture of Dorian Grey. I have never been made so bored by a book in my entire life. 

[Prometheus]

10 hours ago, Velocity_Boy said:

The Great Gatsby.....F Scott Fitzgerald

I agreed with this one: still an OK book, just overrated.

 

The one and half books i read of Hemingway's. Can't remember the titles or stories; one occurred somewhere in the Florida Keys. The only thing i really remember is that every other sentence read like 'look at me, how good am I at writing, am I the best or what...'

 

10 hours ago, Velocity_Boy said:

Moby Dick.... Herman Melville

Still haven't read it but it's on my list. Hope it doesn't disappoint.

 

9 hours ago, iNow said:

The Bible

It's a good book: the story of Jesus in particular is fantastic. But yeah, fans of the book are a little over zealous and rate it a bit too much.

 

 

A recent one that surprised me, though not a classic, was It by Stephen King: was so bored by it couldn't bring myself to finish. Normally like his stories. (Do any of his novels pass as classics? The Shining?)

[Ten oz]

Some Novels speak in a voice that is specific to their era and or following. I wouldn't expect an 18yr old (Generation Z) christian conservative to enjoy James Baldwin's "Giovanni's Room" for example. Many classic Novels are commentaries on society. Over time challenges change as do styles and language which make the underlining commentaries more difficult to relate with. If written in 2018 Capt Ahab (Moby Dick) may have been a special ops soldier looking to kill the world's top terrorist in a bid to end all terrorism only to realize terror exists in the mind and has consumed his life. If written today perhaps the Great White Whale would be a Great Big Border Wall. I think most books which are considered classics have been labelled such for the way they metaphorically represent social strife. 

[dimreepr]

2 hours ago, Ten oz said:

I think most books which are considered classics have been labelled such for the way they metaphorically represent social strife.

And/or the human condition, such as "the old man and the sea" Hemmingway, "Sweet Thursday" and "The Pearl" Steinbeck, "Brick Lane" Monica Ali etc...

Not to mention the value of a good yarn.

[zapatos]

Like most things, quality seems to be in the eye of the beholder. I loved Moby Dick and all things Hemingway.

I twice tried to battle my way through Crime and Punishment. Mostly felt like punishment to me.

I would sooner chew tin foil while shaving my head with a cheese grater than read Oliver Twist again.

For the life of me I cannot understand the fervor around Harry Potter.

[dimreepr]

13 hours ago, Velocity_Boy said:

Hey guys.....

In some recent conversations here, I made an offhand remark about how I thought a classic well-known novel mentioned in a post was hugely Overrated. Just my two cents, of course. But it started a bit of an exchange on the topic of Overrated books. I've always found this subject to be hugely entertaining and providing for some spirited discussions in the past.

So how about it? What allegedly classic Novels do you feel got way too much kudos or acclaim? What Novels come to mind for you when you hear the term Overrated?

Allow me to throw in first......

 

The Great Gatsby.....F Scott Fitzgerald

100 Years of Solitude.... Gabriel Marquez Garcia

The Scarlet Letter

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance...... Robert Pirsig. (I'm not sure this was a novel...in fact I don't think it was. But so profound was my utter dismay upon reading it...being a lifelong motorcycle devotee...and given the absurd amount of accolades it received over decades...I just have to list it.

Confederacy of Dunces.... John Kennedy O'Toole

Angela's Ashes

Moby Dick.... Herman Melville

 

Your turn.

Thanks.

I think this is a case of littery spoilers and why they are so-called, it creates an expectation (a good read) which in turn sets up a bias "I'll be the judge of that", so instead of reading, and enjoying, the book for its yarn, one reads it solely to critique, almost determined not to enjoy it.

But in the end, it comes down to this, we all enjoy differently 

[zapatos]

1 minute ago, dimreepr said:

I think this is a case of littery spoilers and why they are so-called, it creates an expectation (a good read) which in turn sets up a bias "I'll be the judge of that", so instead of reading, and enjoying, the book for its yarn, one reads it solely to critique, almost determined not to enjoy it.

But in the end, it comes down to this, we all enjoy differently 

I agree. I saw Star Wars late in the game. By the time I saw it the hype was so great that nothing could meet the expectations.

[hypervalent_iodine]

3 minutes ago, zapatos said:

Like most things, quality seems to be in the eye of the beholder. I loved Moby Dick and all things Hemingway.

I twice tried to battle my way through Crime and Punishment. Mostly felt like punishment to me.

I would sooner chew tin foil while shaving my head with a cheese grater than read Oliver Twist again.

For the life of me I cannot understand the fervor around Harry Potter.

 

Harry Potter certainly isn't well written, I think the appeal comes more from how immersive the universe is. I loved them when I was a kid / teenager, and have enjoyed them since upon re-reading (though I think part of this is due to nostalgia). Her other books under her name and under Robert Galbraith are, frankly, garbage. Her characters are far too superficial and obvious, which is not a problem so much when you're writing YA fiction, but makes for a very tedious read in most other circumstances. 

[dimreepr]

3 minutes ago, hypervalent_iodine said:

I think the appeal comes more from how immersive the universe is. 

 

Indeed, the best books I've read have all left me morning the end, not because of the quality of the writing but because of the quality of the yarn. 

 

[geordief]

For whom the bell tolls.

Does it get any better after the first 50 pages?

Completely stilted up to then.

[dimreepr]

30 minutes ago, geordief said:

For whom the bell tolls.

Does it get any better after the first 50 pages?

 

Yes, he dies and she's not happy.

 

[CharonY]

4 hours ago, Ten oz said:

Some Novels speak in a voice that is specific to their era and or following. I wouldn't expect an 18yr old (Generation Z) christian conservative to enjoy James Baldwin's "Giovanni's Room" for example. Many classic Novels are commentaries on society. Over time challenges change as do styles and language which make the underlining commentaries more difficult to relate with. If written in 2018 Capt Ahab (Moby Dick) may have been a special ops soldier looking to kill the world's top terrorist in a bid to end all terrorism only to realize terror exists in the mind and has consumed his life. If written today perhaps the Great White Whale would be a Great Big Border Wall. I think most books which are considered classics have been labelled such for the way they metaphorically represent social strife. 

I agree. Classics became such because they had elements that transcendent the confines of a given era. But it also often means that one has to  read them in a sort of analytical way, as the immediate impact will be different for other generations as the context will often not make immediate sense. And then there are books that are infuriating inaccessible and require serious work to be appreciated (James Joyce's Ulysses comes to mind). Are they overrated for that? By whom? Should the basis be the craftsmanship that went into it, regardless of accessibility?  Or the enjoyment and popularity among contemporary readers can draw because it hits an ongoing trend, but may likely be forgotten by future generations? Something that survived the test of time for a variety of reasons?

There are also books that are incredibly well written but intended to be a horrible read so to say. Nabolov's "Lolita" comes into mind. It is disturbing and I have no desire to re-read it. Yet, I cannot deny that it is incredibly well written. Is it under- or overrated for that? In some aspects it is even worse than Ellis" American Psycho, who is much more blunt (including the prose) in its disturbing ways. Yet, the latter is aimed at a particular aspect of modernity  in the 90s and emulates that voice almost perfectly.  But without that context much of it is lost. 

As such I suppose the question is really which books did you read with high expectations and got disappointed by them? 

[Ten oz]

11 minutes ago, CharonY said:

As such I suppose the question is really which books did you read with high expectations and got disappointed by them?

...and when did you read them. As a kid I read Sammy Davis Jr's bio "Why Me" for a book report and thought is was stupid. Considering all the missteps, personal weaknesses, and mistakes Sammy Davis Jr made I was confused as to why people were so impressed by him. As an adult I understand completely. 

 

[NimrodTheGoat]

16 hours ago, Velocity_Boy said:

The Great Gatsby.....F Scott Fitzgerald

I agree. 

What are your opinions on Animal Farm by Orwell? I enjoyed it. 

[swansont]

Are we talking "classical" literature or just literature in general?

I tried reading"Dune" once upon a time but it just never grabbed me. But that doesn't mean it was bad, it just didn't work for me. While I enjoyed the Harry Potter series, the same argument applies. No work is ever going to appeal to everybody, regardless of the literary quality. Tom Clancy novels were fun for a few books but his characters just didn't end up being believable (too many overly competent boy scouts with some superficial character flaw)

[CharonY]

1 hour ago, Ten oz said:

...and when did you read them. As a kid I read Sammy Davis Jr's bio "Why Me" for a book report and thought is was stupid. Considering all the missteps, personal weaknesses, and mistakes Sammy Davis Jr made I was confused as to why people were so impressed by him. As an adult I understand completely. 

 

Quite so. Really good books often result in an intimate interplay between what is happening in the book and your own life experiences. The angst and uncertainty and resulting missteps of youth may resonate very strongly if you are in the same situation, but with distance may look awkward and, frankly, stupid (and vice versa, of course). 

[dimreepr]

42 minutes ago, swansont said:

Are we talking "classical" literature or just literature in general?

 

I think we're talking about literature we don't like, for whatever reason.

[Scott of the Antares]

18 hours ago, Velocity_Boy said:

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance...... Robert Pirsig.

This was one of the first books I read after education and I really enjoyed it although it was over 25 years ago so I can’t really remember too much about it!

It may have been the way it got me to look at the world in a way I hadn’t considered. I have recollections of a personal paradigm shift.

Back on topic, I don’t read fiction so have little to offer:(

[Phi for All]

1 hour ago, swansont said:

I tried reading"Dune" once upon a time but it just never grabbed me.

The first 50 pages expose the history and politics of Herbert's universe like an intro level course lecture given by a professor in a monotone. In that way, Herbert is like a mortgage lender who wants the interest paid before you start in on the principal.