Men not reading much, especially not fiction

[Madeleine]

I did Emma for A Level too and hated it (which means I agree with the author's note that she's created a heroine whom no-one but her will probably like) but I was probably too young to get all the nuances? I haven't re-read it though.  We also studied Persuasion which I didn't like very much either. I read P & P and S & S in the mid-90s and enjoyed both, didn't like Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park though.

[France]

On 11/2/2024 at 5:49 PM, Madeleine said:

I didn't enjoy most of the books we did at school.... A Level English started off well with Frankenstein, then they changed the syllabus and we got Jane Austen and her frilly bonnets and match making instead... I never forgave the school for that!  I was talking about books read at school with a work colleague years ago, and she said that she thought a lot of teenagers wouldn't be able to identify with the characters from the classics, as they just didn't have the life experience required, which I thought was an interesting point.  And then there's the simple reason that it's because we were forced to read something we didn't want to read, or might not have been interested in, because, as my colleague said, we didn't have the emotional maturity to really appreciate the texts, or OK some of them were downright boring - I hated 1984 and still do, even though I can see what Orwell was getting at now.

I'd love to have read Jane Austen for A level!  We read no Victorian or modern novels at all, just 18th century authors because our English teacher said we'd never read them otherwise (with reason). Joseph Andrews by Fielding, I don't know anyone who likes that one, three Gothic novels, Vathek and I can't remember the other two, all pretty tedious, The Beggars Opera...  Alexander Pope's poetry was good fun though.

[Madeleine]

We were originally given Frankenstein to read, which I was looking forward to reading - finally something different from lovelorn or tragic heroines.... - then they changed the syllabus and we got Jane Austen instead, slightly different subject matter!  Back to the lovelorn heroines.... though I did Jane Eyre and Far from the Madding Crowd for O Level and enjoyed both of those.

[tzkay]

That men don't read fiction , to me , is possibly fictitious or maybe they're too busy writing it .