The Good, Bad, and Ugly of 20 Classics in 2020

I would love to deep dive into some of the classics that I read as part of my project, but first here are some general lessons I learned.

The Good

1. Reading classic novels/novellas that are frequently referenced in other works or culture generally is a nerdy kind of fun. It’s like its own secret language — the more you read, the more references you get, the more that certain things take on a new meaning.
2. Reading good writing helps your own writing. Period.
3. While I only reread three novels (Persuasion, The Sun Also Rises, and Things Fall Apart), it is amazing how your perspective on works change at different points in your life. And even though this was my first time through most of these books, I could easily see how certain elements would be perceived very differently at different ages. So it might be worth pulling that dusty copy of an old classic off your shelf to see if your perspective has changed since high school.
4. Seeing the diversity of writing styles was really fun. Excellent writing takes many forms and stories can be told in many voices.

The Bad

1. A lot of classics are surprisingly long. Or dense. Or both. These facts are not problematic, but they do add challenge if you’re trying to read several of these books in quick succession. The process can be draining and I fully admit that it took me nearly six months to get through Huckleberry Finn. I also quit at least two novels due to the length — Wings of the Dove (do not plan to start again) and Vanity Fair (do plan to read eventually).
2. Some classics just aren’t … good. There — I said it. Sometimes books are classics because, at the time they were written, they were revolutionary in some way. Or maybe because the “right” people liked them. Or the “right” people wrote them. Sometimes there are massive plot holes. Or periods of lazy writing. It happens even in the best of books.

The Ugly

1. Pandemic. No two ways about it — this project was made significantly more difficult by the COVID-19 pandemic (as was most of life). I went periods where I just could not force myself to read a classic novel and instead fell back on my defaults (often nonfiction).
2. Sadness. Here’s another thing that you don’t necessarily get until you find yourself reading a lot of classics back-to-back: a lot of them are really sad. Depressing. There is death, insanity, treachery, and digging up of graves (I’m looking at you Heathcliff!). So for every Jane Austen “happily ever after” (and, let’s face it, not even all of her characters get happy endings), there are like ten not-so-happy endings.

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