The Worst Classic Novels and the Most Underrated Books

“The Catcher in the Ryeby JD Salinger

Among our respondents, this 1951 novel elicited the most—and most merciless—complaints. Much of the grumbling centered on Holden Caulfield, a character many readers described as “whiny.” “I refuse to call Caulfield a protagonist because he was ‘for’ nothing, except perhaps his own self-created misery,” wrote Elizabeth Coleman. “It’s been decades since I’ve experienced it; perhaps I would see the book differently now. But I don’t feel compelled to take that risk; there are too many potentially great books out there waiting to be read for the first time.”

“The Great Gatsbyby F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Gatsby” didn’t provoke the same level of outrage as Holden, but a number of commentators felt it lacked substance. According to reader Daniel McMahon, the novel is “full of unpleasant and contemptible characters drawn from such an incredibly narrow slice of American life. Humorless, joyless, and intellectually mundane, this novel isn’t just overrated—it’s no good. It’s the Emperor’s New Clothes of novels that ‘goes on’ because it’s so endlessly prescribed and students are told it’s a classic. I think if you’ve only read 10 novels in your life (or high school career), this might seem like the best of them.”

All through Ernest Hemingway

While we received specific complaints about “The Sun Also Rises,” “The Old Man and the Sea” and “A Farewell to Arms,” quite a few readers wanted to dismiss everything Hemingway had ever written as nonsense (“down to the grocery lists”). “He tries to find emotional depth and gives up after half an inch,” Sarah Miller wrote. “I don’t get the endless praise for his work.”

“Moby Dickby Herman Melville

It was perhaps inevitable that this long-winded and oft-awarded title would make it onto the list. For some, reader Staci Sturrock’s volatile relationship with the novel may be more interesting than the novel itself. It all began in high school decades ago, when a teacher prescribed it, even though at 17 she had “no hope of appreciating it, nay, of even understanding it.” But perhaps, she reasoned, as an adult she would finally understand Melville’s genius. “I reread it last month and was so IN LOVE with the language, characters, and plot for the first third that I proclaimed its brilliance from my own personal crow’s nest, telling my husband, friends, and even my hairdresser that they HAD to read it,” she wrote. “Boy, was I proud of myself. ‘Look at me, voluntarily reading ‘Moby-Dick’ and loving it!’” Then I got into the dark, dense chapters on whaling history, whale behavior, whaling, blah blah blah blubber blubber. Enough facts about whales. I’m done. I went back and told everyone I was wrong, don’t bother.”

“Odysseusby James Joyce

“A mess.” “Chaos.” “Incoherent scribbles.” These are just a few of the descriptions readers had for Joyce’s experimental novel. “As an undergraduate, I was forced to read this book, which meant buying a 250-page book to… TRANSLATE IT!” wrote William J. Raabe. “Now it quickly became apparent that Joyce was a linguistic genius. There were several instances of him writing a sentence that was actually a pun in more than one language. I’m sure if you were fluent in multiple languages, especially the classics, you loved this. But to think that the ‘above-average’ English major needed a translation to read a work supposedly written in English and then declare it the best work of all(!) is ridiculous!”

“The Scarlet Letterby Nathaniel Hawthorne

Readers criticized this 1850 novel for being both melodramatic and boring. “Call me a skeptic (and a backsliding Catholic), but the adulterous sins of other people, spelled out in hundreds of pages, have long since lost my interest,” wrote Mark Haviland, who was forced to read the book in high school And college. “And to paraphrase Monty Python, the Puritans are an ‘unbearable people’ and not the best part of our history.”

“Never ending jokeby David Foster Wallace

It turns out that if you started this novel three times and never finished it (um, hypothetical), you’re not alone. Although, for better or worse, reader Harris Factor wasn’t among the quitters: “I realized early on that this was going to be a drag, but I was persuaded by all the rave reviews and plowed through to the end. After more than 1,000 pages, I decided that I had wasted a lot of time and mental energy on a book that just wasn’t that good.”

“To kill a mockingbirdby Harper Lee

While many readers wanted to remove this classic from the canon, Matthew Martin’s reasoning was particularly well-considered: “I love this book, but it’s long since stopped being a book. It’s a totem for a certain type of narrow-minded, well-meaning reader who reveres it not for its delicate sentences but as the ultimate expression of how just one honest white person can save black people from racism. This book is, for many people, the culmination of a lot of thinking about some very complex and difficult topics.”

A few dishonorable mentions: “A Confederacy of Dunces” by John Kennedy Toole (“A handsome senior recommended this to me in high school and 18 years later I still haven’t forgiven him for wasting my time”); the Bible (“woman-hating historical fiction that millions believe is factual history”); “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov (“lasciviousness for the aging male academic”); and “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand (“a horribly written failure”).

“Real courageby Charles Portis

There was less consensus in the “classics to add” category, but a few readers wrote that this 1968 Western deserves serious consideration. “Recommendations are often met with quizzical looks,” wrote Brendle Wells, “but it is truly one of the best American novels for its depiction of the American West, the American spirit, and the characters, especially Mattie Ross, who is a hero for the ages. And the writing … I could go on, but that would be a direct contradiction to the tight, perfect prose.”

“A gentleman in Moscowby Amor Towles

Several readers raved about this 2016 bestseller, including Juanita Stein: “A perfect combination of historical fiction, a clever plot, and a protagonist forced to find purpose in life in unexpected ways. Add a dash of mystery and intrigue, humor, and brilliant observations about humanity, and you have what I consider the perfect novel.”

“A tree grows in Brooklynby Betty Smith

Several of the novels readers recommended are already considered classics, including George Eliot’s “Middlemarch,” Zora Neale Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God” and Willa Cather’s “My Ántonia.” “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” feels on the edge of the abyss, if not already there, but Kimberley Laws makes such a great case for it that we had to include it: “In a world where little girls long to be princesses, to wear flowing dresses and live in dreamy castles, this book provides a much-needed dose of reality. Francie Nolan lives in Brooklyn, surrounded by poverty. Her father is a drunkard and her mother works herself to death to support her children. But Francie finds joy in the little things—the people she loves and the simple pleasures of life. While few will ever achieve the fairytale endings depicted in princess stories, we will all encounter setbacks. That’s why Smith’s message is so poignant. Girls need to know that their happiness doesn’t depend on their looks, a knight in shining armor, or Disney’s happily ever after elements. Happiness is a choice that comes from within.”

“Relatedby Octavia E. Butler

Readers called Butler’s “Parable of the Sower” and this 1979 science fiction novel “a masterpiece of character development, with complex themes, a compelling plot, and clear but gripping prose,” wrote Melanie Shoffner. “I’ve read it — and taught it — several times and find more to think about each time. A work of fiction, yes, but its insight into the historical roots of American race, gender, and socioeconomic issues offers much to think about now — but it’s still a great story, not a treatise on American issues. Everyone should read this — and I never make that statement lightly!”

“The dispossessedby Ursula K. Le Guin

Several of Le Guin’s books have been hailed as masterpieces. Of “The Dispossessed,” Cheryl Glover wrote: “It takes you out of the here and now and into another place, another world, where you are free to explore life without the usual social constraints. Science fiction allows us to do that. Enter quietly into another reality where things are different but still work. This book challenges us to think about what we value, not money or things, but ourselves. I keep coming back to it and each time I get more out of it. It has been critically praised, but I doubt many people have read it.”

“Ceremonyby Leslie Marmon Silko

Lark Hammond wasn’t the only reader to offer up this new classic, but the former prep school English teacher was the only one to give us a tantalizing comparative literary assignment. “This book is a challenging read, stylistically—a real tour de force—and the rewards are astonishing,” Hammond wrote. “Silko weaves together very real postwar PTSD sufferers, traditional myths of the Laguna Pueblo people, shamanic experiences, and a plot that illustrates a view of good and evil that is most intriguingly comparable to the Christian view of good and evil developed in Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost.'”

All through Percival Everett

Readers recommended Everett’s entire bibliography, particularly The Trees, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. A handful of readers also noted that his most recent novel, James, which revisits the plot of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from Jim’s perspective, should be taught alongside Mark Twain’s classic.

“The Doll Makerby Harriette Arnow

This 1955 National Book Award nominee had many fans. “It prophetically describes what we now understand as the erosion of the human spirit caused by our belief that making money to spend is the ultimate meaning of life,” wrote Ronni Lundy. “Perhaps if Arnow had been a man—one named Steinbeck, perhaps?—we would have long since elevated this book to the top of the American canon.”

A few honorable mentions: John Dos Passos’s USA Trilogy (“a riveting snapshot of the chaos, dreams and inequalities of a nation in the making”); Maggie O’Farrell’s “Hamnet” (“a gripping tale that will leave you heartbroken and with a changed perspective”); Yoko Ogawa’s “The Memory Police” (“a simple, perfect portrait of a selfless soul”).