If given the chance to yank the title "classic" from one book...?

i would take it from silas marner by george eliot (the only good thing i can say about this piece of maudlin malarkey is that its short) and give it to carrie by stephen king. i don't think king gets the critical respect that he deserves because he is such a prolific writer and so pervasive in popular culture.

I find this question intriguing and have been doing my best to "examine" various classics, trying to figure out which one would have its title stripped.

I believe I'm with ksotikoula about The Portrait of a Lady. It was painful to read and, I thought, completely pointless. I didn't even like the main character much; or, at least, I felt no real empathy for her.

If I'm not permitted to echo someone else, then I might say My Antonia by Willa Cather. It's an interesting story, but I remember thinking some of the writing seemed choppy. Perhaps it's not a fair assessment, since it's been years since I've read it. I may have distorted it a bit in my mind, but that is my recollection.

Now, to whom does this title get transferred? Hmmm, that's a tough one. The first that comes to mind is James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small series. (That may be cheating since it's not an even reassignment.) Still, I thought that series was quite brilliant and very enjoyable.

***Luthien, I think some do like him, but I agree with you. He's one who gives me the creeps. You received a thumbs up from me!

The book is like, what, 600 words? Seagull flies differently than others, gets criticized, ends up finding evolved masters, leaves this plane of existence. Moral of the story: Put enough pictures in, and you can sell a book with less words than will fit on a typed piece of paper. Other moral of the story: Illusions, one of the shortest books out there, takes too long to tell the same story. Third moral of the story: The man is going to keep down the people who don't do as they say, but if you ignore them, you're really cool. The book *is* a short summary of the book.

Possibly. I never did like Romeo and Juliet. Cute story and pretty words, but nothing special. Besides, Shakespeare has plenty of other classics. He needs to spread the wealth.

I loved The Green Mile by Stephen King. It made me cry three different times, and one time I actually had to put the book down and just sob for a minute. The writing is great, there's some interesting symbolism, the characters are compelling, and the plot is good. I might take Romeo and Juliet's "classic" status and give it to The Green Mile.

I would yank the title "classic" from The Catcher in the Rye and give it to either Dark Rivers of the Heart by Dean Koontz or the entire Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind (even though some of them were published after 2000 the series started before the year 2000)

I would yank the title from "the portrait of a lady" by Henry James (awfully boring, wordy and with frustrating and without reason ending) and would give it to "a 100 years of loneliness" by Gabriel Garcia Marques.

For some reason, I've had a really hard time answering this question! This is the fourth time that I've started to write my answer.

Okay, I would probably take the "classic" status away from A Christmas Carol (lol, I know, weird choice) and give it to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

I'd take it from either a Marquis de Sade book. (because those are horrific and perverted) or Catcher in the Rye, or yank it off Ulysses by James Joyce.

And I'd hand it to .... argh .... Gotta think on this. Was Atonement out before 2000? Damn ... maybe a Stephen King novel. I'm really bad at this, sorry!

LuthienT

EDIT: Why so many thumbs down? Don't tell me people actually like Marquis de Sade?

I would yank the title classic from "The Old Man and the Sea" which is a really stupid book..... and put it on "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card.

Hi there,

I'd rip it off "The Sound and the Fury" by Faulkner (which I hate), and give it to Amy Tan's "Joy Luck Club".

Cheers

S