The Literary Blog Hop is a fortnightly event held at The Blue Bookcase prompting book bloggers to answer a question.
Discuss a work of literary merit that you hated when you were made to read it in school or university? Why did you dislike it?
This question brought me a bit of a surprise: I can’t remember most of the books I studied in school!
I remember very clearly the three books I studied one year and that is because the teacher was the best I ever had. The three books we studied that year were: Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo, Le Pigeon by Patrick Suskind and La Fée Carabine by Daniel Pennac. I loved La Fée Carabine. I liked Notre-Dame de Paris; it was a difficult read, but worth it, and our teacher was intelligent enough to beg us to skip the third chapter, which is a detailed description of the cathedral. I did not like Le Pigeon, simply because I found it boring; however, I remember it created a good discussion in the classroom. Those books are different and I remember our teacher made us think about them and discuss them, rather than just providing us with her analysis. If all my teachers had been like her, I would have had a much better experience of literary studies at school.
As for the other years, my memories have faded. Is it because I did not like the books and blocked them out? I have a vague memory of reading Manon Lescaut by l’Abbé Prévost and Le Rouge et le Noir by Stendhal. If I remember well, my feelings were mixed about both. I also remember studying Les Fleurs du Mal by Baudelaire. I like reading it, but was never really good at analysing poems. Unfortunately, the text I had to present at my French oral for the baccalauréat was one of them: “A une passante”. It was a disaster and I left the room in tears.
My memories of university reads (in France) are much more vivid and generally good. I loved discovering all those new books and I guess the way of teaching was really different. This is how I discovered Austen’s Emma, Golding’s Lord of the Flies and Plath’s The Bell Jar (what a revelation it was!). Of course, these were a bit difficult to read at first as English was not my first language, but I easily got into the stories.
Now, Shakespeare was a different matter altogether! The first year I read two of his plays (Macbeth and ?), I did not like them at all. In fact, I hated them. The language was difficult and I could not connect with the stories. These plays meant nothing to me. I failed the module. Second year, I had a different lecturer and she put a whole new perspective onto Shakespeare. She explained the context and helped us to read and analyse the plays. That year, we studied Macbeth and Richard III, and I really enjoyed them. I will always be thankful to this lecturer. I have actually had the occasion to talk to her again lately and told her the impact she had on my literary studies.
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January 21, 2011 at 8:48 pm
dragonflyy419
It’s amazing how influential teachers/professor can be on our opinions of books/things. I’m glad you found a lecturer who could explain Shakespeare to you well and that you could learn to enjoy his plays. I couldn’t imagine going through life loathing Shakespeare :).
January 21, 2011 at 10:22 pm
Em
And now it’s my turn trying to make students like Shakespeare!
January 21, 2011 at 9:18 pm
LifetimeReader
Shakespeare is hard enough when English is your first language. Having a wonderful teacher can make all the difference.
January 21, 2011 at 10:23 pm
Em
Particularly his tragedies and histories. I think the comedies would be a much better introduction to Shakespeare for foreign students…
January 21, 2011 at 10:44 pm
Mel u
Hi-as a follow up comment to your very welcome comment on my post on Poe’ s “Tell Tale Heart”-who among (nonliving) short story writers besides Chekhov, du Maupassant, Joyce, Mansfield would you include in a “canon” list?
January 21, 2011 at 11:06 pm
Em
I was not thinking about a “canon” list, but more as as “worth reading” list, and as I mention contemporary short stories, I also include living authors. I would suggest Munro and Carver to begin with, but there are so many more. I also think Atwood’s writing in this genre should get more recognition.
I have a few reviews here if you’re looking for inspiration…
My reading of the short story is still a work in progress that I only started about a year ago, so I have many more authors to dicover…
January 21, 2011 at 11:01 pm
Parrish
My introduction to shakespeare was through my junior school teacher i was around 9-10 and she was into amatuer dramatics & passionate, which she managed to project into us kids, imagine hitting secondary & finding out the teaching in comparison was an ice filled bath.
January 21, 2011 at 11:11 pm
Em
Oh! I can imagine!
Teaching in France when I was in school was still mainly inspired by New Criticism and it mainly consisted of narrow close-readings with no discussion. The teacher I mention in this post was an exception!
January 21, 2011 at 11:10 pm
Parrish
have you read the Anthologist by Nicholson Baker, based on the poetry question (fiction/nonfiction) you may enjoy it.
January 21, 2011 at 11:15 pm
Em
No, I haven’t. I will go to bookmark it right now.
Thanks for the recommendation!
January 22, 2011 at 12:29 am
Susan
Le Rouge et le Noir was another book I had a tough time with. In fact, I don’t remember if I managed to finish. I was going to reread it for the “Back to the Classics Challenge” to see if it got better with (my) age, but at the last minute I chose another book instead. Maybe someday I’ll be brave enough to tackle it!
January 22, 2011 at 9:16 pm
Em
I don’t think I will bother. I’m curious every so often, but there are so many other books I’d like to read…
January 22, 2011 at 5:50 am
Michelle
I still don’t understand why Shakespeare is taught so often to students who are studying English. I love Shakespeare and I’m thrilled to see his work taught around the world, but it doesn’t make sense to me in the context of a course meant to broaden someone’s understanding and more importantly, their facility, with English. But I’m glad you eventually had a teacher who knew how to do this well, at least.
I’m trying to remember a book I was forced to read and ended up hating…and I can’t. I’m sure it happened, but I’ve blocked it from my memory 🙂
January 22, 2011 at 9:17 pm
Em
There are many aspects of teaching that are difficult to understand…
January 22, 2011 at 5:53 am
Anne
I remember that year very well… Wasn’t it the year we met?
I also try to see that lecturer each time I go back to France.
January 22, 2011 at 9:15 pm
Em
I think it was…
I got back in touch with her this year an will try to meet her at some stage; it would be lovely…
January 22, 2011 at 1:57 pm
debnance at readerbuzz
Required Reading is such a minefield. I was lucky to carefully make my way through the field and I had few bombs blow up in my face.
Here’s my post: http://readerbuzz.blogspot.com/2011/01/required-reading-dont-get-me-started.html
January 23, 2011 at 2:34 am
Lisa Almeda Sumner
Amazing what an impact a good (or bad) teacher can have. I do remember that in high school I was much more engaged by books I chose to read than by books I had to read for school, but somehow my love of reading and books survived it all.
January 23, 2011 at 4:07 am
gautami tripathy
Some books are so difficult to get into. And those put us off that author too, for always.
And my teacher spoiled A Passage to India for me. But I did go back and loved it!
Here is my Literary Blog Hop: Disliked Book post!
January 23, 2011 at 4:54 pm
Kelly
I definitely think that good teachers can make the difference between liking and hating required readings. Your teacher that had you skip a chapter of a very long description reminds me of a teacher I had in high school. We had to read Last of the Mohicans, which is filled with long, never-ending descriptions that don’t need to be there, but the teacher was so much fun and made the book a whole lot of fun to read.
January 23, 2011 at 5:53 pm
Emily
As I’ve been going through the hop, I’ve noticed so many people who have said that their teacher made a huge difference in how they viewed the books they read. As a future English teacher, that both excites and intimidates me! The possibility of having an impact one someone’s life is why I wanted to be a teacher in the first place, but it’s so important to have the right kind of impact! Thank goodness for good teachers. Here’s to hoping I can be one someday.
January 23, 2011 at 7:26 pm
parrish
Well you appear to be starting from a good place, a love of the written word & a curiosity to explore it, in all its diverse forms
January 23, 2011 at 8:50 pm
JoAnn
Shakespeare is hard even if English is your first language! Teachers can make such a big difference, too.
January 24, 2011 at 5:37 am
Melody
I hated Shakespeare for a long time–it was one of those rebellious things I guess, I was supposed to love him therefor I loathed him. I’ve been fixing that though, the more I read the more I like him.