Readers Reveal Most Overrated Classic Books

Buzz Feed

19-06-2025

When I turned twenty, I set a personal reading goal to read 100 classics by the time I turned thirty. I admit, I still have twelve books to go within nine months...but I like to think that I am relatively well-versed in classic literature.
So when Reddit user villagewitch3000 asked, "What's the worst 'classic' you've ever read?" I immediately had to see if everyone agreed with me about The Scarlet Letter being one of the most tedious slogs known to classic literature. (The consensus is in...IT IS!)
Even though I wholeheartedly disagree with some of these reviews, I thought they were too interesting not to share. So without further ado...
"Wuthering Heights. Jesus. Heathcliff, mate, just leave her alone. "
"Pride and Prejudice. Long-winded drivel, neither funny nor romantic, and without even the redeeming quality of a worthwhile message."
"The Scarlet Letter. I hate how Hawthorne spoon-feeds his readers symbolism. We get it. The scarlet letter is a symbol for shame."
"Gone with the Wind. Scarlett O'Hara acts ridiculous and insufferable throughout the entire novel. She doesn't care who she has to hurt, just as long as she gets her way."
"To Kill a Mockingbird. I thought it was so boring and I was really disappointed. I picked it up expecting that the racism aspect of the story would have a bigger role, but instead I had to read through pages and pages of this little girl's boring life."
"The Great Gatsby. I can't stand Fitzgerald's writing style."
"Rebecca. It's like, bitch, I do not care about your problems. The only person in this entire mansion that I can relate to is the maid that I'm supposed to hate."
"This will probably get some hate...but Catcher in the Rye. I honestly could not connect with Holden Caulfield and found him to be somewhat of a whiny, self-indulgent ne'er-do-well."
"Crime and Punishment. I just wanted to punch the main character in the face over and over again. And it honestly had zero to do with the fact that he was a murderer. I just hated his personality."
"Lolita, hands down. Gross, perverted, and I dreaded picking it back up every time I did. "
"Frankenstein. I think my problem was that I was expecting the book to be really different from what it was."
"The Alchemist. Ugh. What utter tripe. If this book changed your life, then you must have had a truly horrific life up to that point."
"Les Misérables. Not only is it very long, it has seemingly interminable stretches of boredom."
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It might've been funny or clever when I was 14 and loved Monty Python and thought absurdist British humour was the height of comedy...but it was awful as an adult."
"Anything Tolkien. Reading the man's writing is like trying to ingest a pack of broken light bulbs."
"Heart of Darkness is so incredibly boring. I had to read it for three separate classes, and I really tried to like it each time, but I can't stand that book. "
"Don Quixote...fuck Don Quixote."
"Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Talking about the mechanics of the boat is not fun."
"Ulysses. That was work."
"Atlas Shrugged. 🙄😴😴😴😴😴"
"Moby Dick is one of the most inconsistent books I've ever read. It starts out as a first-person narrative by Ishmael, occasionally interrupted by lengthy speeches and occasional chapters on the anatomy of the sperm whale, and by the end, it shifts to the third person. Then there is maybe a paragraph tacked onto the very end when Melville realizes this was Ishmael's story, so he kinda reverts back to the first person to explain how he could have survived to tell the tale."
"The Picture of Dorian Gray. Udder nonsense dressed in off-putting, overly flowery dribble."
"Of Mice and Men. Steinbeck just REALLY likes describing scenery, and sometimes I'm just not down to read through ten pages about hills. "
"The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck. The great depression... pretty much sums how I felt reading it."
"One Hundred Years of Solitude. I recall reading it, and I ended up saying, 'That was it? What was all the fuss about?'"
"Pretty much anything by Charles Dickens. He came from a time when authors were paid by installment, and it shows."
"Brave New World. Didn't find it compelling at all. 1984 on the other hand scared the shit out of me."
"The Turn of the Screw. It is supposed to be ambiguous, but I really only see the governess as a loon. "
"The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer seems to think the only things that are funny are farts."
"I read Slaughterhouse-Five and I don't remember a damn thing about it. "
"I hated The Giver. The ending was just deus ex machina wish fulfillment. "
"Walden was my 'I can't stand this' book. It almost destroyed my love of reading."
"I get why Uncle Tom's Cabin is important, but hoooo boy, that book is a hot mess. Most of the classics I've slogged through are at least objectively well written, but not this one. "
"Vanity Fair. I've read it about four times, and I still can't keep up with who is who and what the main character's motive is."
"The Yellow Wallpaper. Yeah, I get it. Patriarchy bad. "
"The Count of Monte Cristo. It builds up to this lacklustre ending that could've happened chapters ago. I felt I would have been better off watching a Hollywood adaptation loosely based on the original novel."
"The Bell Jar. Took it from my university library...couldn't read it."
"Toni Morrison's Beloved. Starts off boring, progresses slowly, and tries to be meaningful in places, but it just felt contrived. Then out of nowhere, a supernatural ending that would be more at home in a Sci-fi original movie."
Since The Great Gatsby is my favourite book of all time, I am personally offended by those who tell me that Fitzgerald is nothing special. I want to scream, "You try writing such colourful and poetic prose!" So please don't let me down in the comments.
Instead, in the comments, tell me the classic literature titles that you could barely get through, and which of the above titles are WRONG to be listed as a "bad classic."
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