I've read almost none of the 'classics'...
...and for years that's made me think I really couldn't be a writer.
I am not sure when I first internalised the idea that to be a writer (professionally anyway), you needed to have… a) done a degree in literature, creative writing and/or journalism (the more the better), and b) have read and be able to reference at the drop of a hat, the infamous “classics”.
You know the books/scripts I mean…those by Austen, Shakespeare, Bronte, Hemingway and Dickens. The infamous War and Peace and Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger, and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
I could go on.
I’ve not read any of them cover to cover.
Sure, I had to read a select few for high school English (though in Australia the pick of books seemed quite different, and at the schools I attended often more current/modern choices), and I have watched quite a few of the film and TV adaptations.
The original writing, however, remains unread.
For so long, I have carried a weird shame around about his, especially as someone who is hyperlexic and was a voracious reader from a super young age, so it wasn’t the ‘reading’ or ‘books’ part that put me off. Perhaps it’s the subject matter being set in the past? Though I do find aspects of history fascinating. Or the style of writing? Vastly different to modern texts. I can’t quite put my finger on it.
I have ‘tried’ many times to almost force myself to read a few, thinking that it is a ‘right of passage’ for writers and readers that I must somehow endure.
Though, honestly, I have no real desire to read them. Life is short and my ‘to-be-read’ pile is tall.
It wasn’t until I was listening to editor and publishing managing director Sharmaine Lovegrove, here in the UK, speak to this exact confession, on the podcast ‘How to Write A Book’.
“Funny, that I was actually just talking about these characters, Eliza Bennett and Mr. Darcy, because I've actually never read any of the English classics.”
“…The reason that I didn't read those books was because I was just interested in lots and lots of other things, and because of how I was brought up with books, because of the libraries that I went to, there was just so much else going on. I grew up in a really multicultural environment in London, and I was just surrounded by so many different cultures, that the ‘englishness’ was not of interest to me… the blurbs just felt very reductive, and I don't even want to be critical of it, because it's just when I was younger, I just wasn't as interested…”
From How To Write A Book: 5. CHARACTER, 19 Aug 2024
She was met with somewhat of a shocked response by her fellow podcast co-hosts Nelle Andrews and Sara Collins, but I took a huge sigh of relief. I very noticeably exhaled.
I had never actually heard anyone who’s anyone in writing or publishing say as such, out aloud, and I completely understood the background rationale and perspective Sharmaine offered and felt relieved to hear it. Thank you, Sharmaine.
This podcast conversation further made me reflect on why I personally had not ended up choosing and reading these same classics over my 30-ish years of reading?
I could definitely relate to the line about having varied reading interests and being pulled in other directions. There were always so many more exciting books to read. I also recall going through a major fantasy phase in adolescence (some definite escapism there), and then the rest of my early adulthood spent on reading much more current books - romantic comedies, stories about friendship, growing up, cool jobs and young adulthood.
Thinking back with hindsight, I was likely not only enjoying the story and plots of such books, but I think they were also teaching me about ‘people’. These books were teaching me about the world, about social cues, about relationships and how they can operate. About being human. Or even offering an alternative reality or possible way of living (though often wildly unrealistic, this is fiction after all).
I think reading these books have helped me make sense of the world, and whilst yes, many were probably only showing me a very narrow view of the world (my tastes only becoming more intersectional once I left school and home). My neurodivergent brain was learning all the same. Though perhaps you could also argue, that the kinds of books I was reading were also just teaching me to ‘mask better’, though that’s a conversation for another day. I am glad the diversity of fiction books available today has changed for the better.
Books were (and still are) my safe space, and reading my favourite activity. So, if reading a classic feels like punishment (which some do), then it does start to make sense as to why I still can’t quite face reading one through, it’s a lot to lose. Never mind the fact that my attention span could not hack reading War and Peace in 2025 (I don’t think I am alone in this).
Maybe, I will eventually read Pride and Prejudice or Wuthering Heights and marvel in the writing and the characters, but for now I am just sitting here starting to believe and learning to accept, that there really is no one way to ‘be a writer’.
Have you read any of the ‘classics’ that you still recall to this day? Or are you like me and have stayed well away? Let me know below in the comments.
Until next week,
Camilla
P.S it goes without saying, but there is absolutely no shade to any of you reading this who do love the classics, go you! I hear they can be pretty great.
I so understand this and can relate! Huge reader and no classics read!
Your brief reflection on fiction/reading in general helping you learn about the world around you as a ND person was so thought provoking! Never thought about it from this perspective before. I think the only ‘classics’ that I have read through choice since school were ones where I had already seen the film adaptations. And as much as I feel like puritans might gasp at that, it helped me to keep up with where the story was going when I was reading prose that was arguably very old fashioned and quite tricky to follow sometimes.