Ah classical literature. The infamous book genre from before you were even born, or conceived in that case. You may have to read this for school or for that book club you signed up for. And you wonder to yourself" Why do you have to read this? The language is so flowery and they characters are so old fashioned. But you have to read this. Just trust me on this. Do you think I would lie to you like that? I certainly hope not. Anyway, this is why you need to read classical literature.
To start off, look at the time period the book was written
For example, the book "Anna Karenina." (which I am reading currently). The story takes place in the nineteenth century. Most of the time it is in Russia, specifically in Moscow. Now this book was written by Leo Tolstoy, who was alive during this time. Now this book, unlike most history books, may have a fictional cast and their personal events may as well be fictional. However, this gives us readers more of an inside scoop of how people talked and reacted to such events. It's so much different from this day and age. Sure we have history books and some journals. Who is to know how less famous people acted and such? Classical literature from this time, does give the inside scoop.
It angers people to read so much sexism in a novel
Well it angers myself too, do not think anything different. However, look at how far we have come with regarding sexism. Look at how the feminist movement is pushing forward every single day. There is much improvement from my dear Anna's life, over the life I am living now. You see, in your day and age, I can express that I am agender (although a lot of people tend to push that I am not), but that is beside the point. If we were to look by sex and not gender, I would have been married already, and not being able to pursue a life in the written arts. Yes this still happens unfortunately, but as times continue, there is a push for women to get further in life. I cannot speak for everyone, but that is as far as I know.
The flowery language
Oh what you do not enjoy ten pages of describing a vase? Or being barely able to understand what they are saying? Well imagine if someone did that to you? Well, I would not. Even I cannot write like that, but that is the thing. This is how they spoke back then. What is jargon for us may as well be common speak for them. So who is to say, if they were able to see our writing now, they would see that it evolved and grown. And hey, reading about that vase may not be important to the plot of the story, but you can learn a whole new way of describing objects. Although you may not particularly write ten pages on a singular object, but you learn how to describe an object with more detail. Now it may be annoying to read, but you learn how not to describe an object. And that is perfectly fine as well.
Anyway, I hope I brought some justice to classical literature. Sure it has its flaws, but you need to give it a chance. Plus, you may learn something that can apply to modern day life, even though it is from a centuries old piece of work. Go ahead, start small by reading "Grimm's Fairy Tales," then move onto the bigger works. The more you read, the more you'll realize how interesting classical literature really is.
I'm going to go read now. Hope you'll do the same.
