Hi everybody, I hope that you're all
doing really well! So today I am here to talk about how to get into classics. This
was a video that was particularly prompted by one of my friends who was
asking for some suggestions of places to start with getting into classics and I
thought that I would do a little two-part miniseries- oh look how fancy we
are! This first part is going to be all about just general tips and advice for
how to take the intimidation factor away from starting to read
classics for the first time, and then the second video is going to be more general
book recommendations. Now of course I'm not saying this as a teacher or any sort
of expert in classic literature, I don't have an English degree or consider
myself to have read a vast number of classics, but I am speaking from the
perspective of somebody who was once really intimidated by the idea of
reading classics and I'm not anymore- James Joyce notwithstanding- and I don't
think that other people should be either. And I think when you do finally crack
into a classic and really enjoy it you can get so much valuable insight into a
time period and it can just be really good fun- you know fun, the thing that
reading is meant to be, you can have that with classics as well! First and foremost
I do think it is important to understand that it is okay if you find you
cannot immediately dive into a classic piece of literature. It's really not
worth it to try and pretend like they're aren't some things that are immediate
barriers to starting to read classics- antiquated language and
expressions, contemporary behaviours and societal norms and morals that just do
not have any value today and with our personal modern sensibilities. However it
is also worth remembering that these big classic pieces of literature,
you know these "grand epics" were once considered the contemporaries of their
day. It sounds so so obvious to say out loud, but I think we often forget that
and it kind of takes some of the mystique out of it if you think "Hey, Jane
Austen? Leo Tolstoy? They were once the Sally Rooneys of their day!" And many of
these so-called classic authors were never writing with the intention that
their work was going to be the greatest novel ever written, some of them
were of course, but most of them were just trying to write so that they could
make a paycheck, so that they could have food and pay rent at the end of the
day. Most of them were writing with a popular audience in mind and they
would be absolutely horrified to find out that nowadays they are considered to
be boring or dull or just hard to understand because that was never their
intention. But yeah, it's true the readers back in the day of these texts had a lot
more contextual knowledge and understanding that we as modern readers
do not have. They understand the societal norms, they understand the language,
the slang that we just do not have readily available today it's kind of
like if somebody from the 1800s were to time travel and pick up
a modern contemporary piece of literature from today, they would open it
and they would be completely aghast, they would be so confused about what's going
on. The same with us trying to pick up a classic piece of literature without
having any context. But does that mean that that 19th century reader reading a
modern piece of literature is any less of a person or less of a reader or less
intelligent? No- and you're not either! So yeah that would be my first piece of
advice with approaching classics is to try and understand some of the context
of when they are being written. Considering the context of how and when
these authors were writing their texts can make them seem so much more
understandable and relatable, you know rather than these gods of literature
that we put up on a pedestal. For example, understanding that Charles Dickens
published a lot of his stories into periodicals and submitted them chapter
by chapter serially goes a long way into understanding why his works are so goddamn long. Like, oh yeah, he was being paid by the word
so of course he's going to milk that story for all it's worth. Suddenly you
look at Bleak House or David Copperfield and you don't see there's a big God of
literature that you can't understand, you see a man who is just trying to squeeze
as much money out of his creation as he can and it's quite funny. And that
suddenly makes Charles Dickens seem a lot more relatable and approachable
because we've all tried to squeeze as many words out of a story or an essay as
we possibly can. And it's really not intensive research that you have to do
to try and get some of this initial context, you do not need to have an
English degree or history degree to understand the context of these time
periods, for example watching a short YouTube video,
or listening to a podcast, reading a short article or a blog post to
understand that time period a little bit more and that will open up so much for
you when you're starting to these books. A lot of classic texts come
with introductions at the beginning where an author will just go into the
major themes and the plot for you and you might find that really helpful. And
you know there's always Sparknotes. I feel like people have a really bad
relationship with websites like Sparknotes they think it's cheating but,
no, it is there to help you. Another piece of advice that I really stand by
and anybody who knows me knows that I love recommending is to listen to
audiobooks to try and get into classics. I'm such a massive advocate for
audiobooks because I think they are just a foolproof way of being able to
immediately immerse yourself into the tone and the humour of a piece of classic
fiction. Sometimes when you're reading physically on the page you can't
always quite get the tone or the humour immediately, but an audiobook will really bring that
to life for you. And you don't even have to listen to an audiobook all the way
through, you know, there are some classics that absolutely I love listening the
audiobook of, and others where it helps you get into it initially but then you can quite
happily pick up the book and read it physically from then on. For example, I
really love listening to the Brontes on audiobook but I actually found listening
to Frankenstein it was actually a hindrance to my enjoyment and I much
much preferred physically reading it. Another piece of advice that might
really help you in the initial start up to looking into classics is to consider
whether or not a piece of work has been translated and which translation you
might be more tempted to use. This counts for foreign language classics but also
for slightly older English classics, because different translators will get
the story across in different ways and you might find that you absolutely hate
a book when you read it through one translation but then another one is so
much more accessible and so much better to read. You can either go to the library
or you can check out Google Books or an Amazon preview, just have a little
read of a couple pages and if a translation is really not calling to you
and you're not responding to it move on go to something else, you will hopefully
eventually find something that really gels with you. Now you might be thinking
"Charlotte it's all well and good to tell me to look into different audiobooks or
looking at the context but lke what classic do I even begin with? I don't
know what to start with, there's just so many!" and that's fair enough! So for
advice on which classic to read, I have a couple of suggestions. Firstly I would
say maybe think about the kind of genre of fiction that you currently like to
read and then try and find a classic in that genre.
For example, if you are a big fan of sci-fi you might find that you really
respond to Frankenstein by Mary Shelley or The Time Machine by H.G. Wells as they
are staple classics in sci-fi. Maybe you've come across a retelling of a
classic that you've been really interested in for example Circe by
Madeline Miller or the Song of Achilles, in which case you might consider having
a look into Homer or to other ancient Greek authors. Have a think about some of
your favourite films and TV shows. Chances are at least one or two of those will be
based on a classic piece of literature and some of them you may never have
considered might have been based on classic. For example, yeah,
Clueless it's based on Emma by Jane Austen. Bridget Jones is based on Pride and
Prejudice, Pretty woman is based on Pygmalion, 10 Things I Hate About You is
based on Taming of the Shrew, Material Girls with Hilary Duff and Haylie Duff?
That is based on Sense and Sensibility. Are you getting a sense of my taste in
films? It's all like girly rom-coms, I love it! The Lion King is based on Hamlet,
She's the man is based on Twelfth Night, Get over is based on a Midsummer Night's
Dream. I don't know what you're talking about,
I have great movie taste! Maybe you've discovered an author that you're
interested in but you're not quite sure how to tackle them, what book is the
right one to go for first? You might find going for one of their shorter pieces of
work like A Christmas Carol might be a good way of getting into Charles Dickens.
Maybe have a look into some shorter edition, so for example at Penguin have
these little black classics I have one of Oscar Wilde and then this general one
about Suffragettes, but they have a whole series of little mini selections of
different authors works. They give you a little taster for an author to see
whether or not you like their writing style but are much less intimidating than
picking up War and Peace. Alternatively you might find it easier to just go
simple and go chronologically with an author, just build up over time with them
and see how they developed as a writer. Maybe you are very much a genre kind of
person or you like reading a particular type of story, in which case anthologies
might be a really good place to start so that you can get a taste of lots of
different authors across one particular concept. For me I have lots of Christmas
books which have so many different author compiled all around the
topic of Christmas. I have Around the Christmas fire, I have A Literary
Christmas, and I've got this Faber Book of Christmas, these aren't isn't
classic authors it's classic and contemporary. But you might find you touch
upon a particular author's short story or poem that you really really resonate with and now you've got a new author that you can check the back list of! One of the
last things that I recommend is to potentially participate in read alongs
and book clubs that are all to do with classics, it's always really really fun
when you can read a classic and get the opportunity to chat about it with other
people who are like-minded. Have a look at different booktubers who
are really into classics. Off the top of my head I can think of Lucy the
reader, Katie from books and things, Claire Fenby , they all talk very extensively about
classics and might be a really great place to start. I know Claire Fenby is
doing a read-along in July of Middlemarch by George Eliot and that might be
really fun to get involved with and Lucy is doing like a year long classics
community where people are talking about their favorite classics and the classics
that they're reading through the year through the hashtag-- #classics community-
and that might help to really boost your motivation when you're seeing other
people are getting involved in classics alongside you.
Hi guys, Charlotte from the future and just wanted to say I completely forgot
to talk about watching movies in TV shows that are directly adapted from a classic
literature. I'm such a massive advocate for watching films and TV shows that are
based on at classics. I think there's a bit of taboo about watching the film
or the TV adaptation before you read the book but I think if that helps you get
into it, as I've said before I'm a massive fan of anything to kind of help you with
the visualisation of a world. There's a reason that lots of English literature
teachers and like to show a bit of a film and then read a chapter and then
show a bit more film and then read a chapter, because they know that it helps
students to visualise the world that they are getting into. So I'm a big fan
and I'll probably even link below or put images of some of my favourite book
adaptations from film and TV. Lastly and I think most importantly, just have fun
with it, that's important to remember! Classics can be really educational but they
are meant to be fun, reading is meant to be fun and it's
really important to not forget that and don't get bogged down trying to read
something if it's just not entertaining. If you pick up a classic and you find
that it's really not resonating with you and you don't like it? That's fine!
Move on to something else, it doesn't mean that you are a bad reader or that
you just didn't get it because you didn't like a classic piece of
literature that everybody else seems to like. You're entitled to your taste and
to your preferences. Once again I want to reiterate that reading is meant to be
fun, so don't make it not fun for yourself. And classics are jam-packed
with unique and clever humour, wonderful love stories, deep meanings, captivating
settings, tragic plots and endings and unforgettable characters and you can
find that in classics just as you can with contemporary. I hope that this video
may be potentially helped and that it gave you a bit of advice if you were
struggling at all with getting into classics. Like I say, there's going to be
another video where I talk specifically about different book recommendations I
think you might enjoy if you're just getting into classics. Do you have any
advice yourself for places to start? Do let me know and if you've got any other
questions I'd love to hear from you. I hope you're having a fantastic day and I
look forward to speaking to you again soon! Thanks, bye!
