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Great Books Hated During Their Time: Salinger, Huxley, Steinbeck And More

First Posted: 08/16/10 02:08 PM ET Updated: 05/25/11 06:20 PM ET

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Salinger

Cracked:

Many, if not most, of the books you were handed in high school as required reading were hated by critics and readers alike when they first hit shelves.

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Many, if not most, of the books you were handed in high school as required reading were hated by critics and readers alike when they first hit shelves.
Many, if not most, of the books you were handed in high school as required reading were hated by critics and readers alike when they first hit shelves.
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Skyhawk
When I write one it'll appear here.
362 Fans
 
04:06 PM on 08/19/2010
James Joyce Ulysses. OMG
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Tremonius
36 Fans
12:42 PM on 08/19/2010
The Joads became the great American family, spurned and despised okies whose Hooverville hovels were burned by American Legion goons went on to found in the central valley one of the few Repugnant strongholds in the state, voting with the oppressor, in typical teabagger fashion.
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sinwat
8 Fans
04:50 PM on 08/17/2010
I thought catcher in the rye was awful. Everyone loves to complain and whine but who wants to read a story where the only thing the kid does is complain and whine.

and grapes of wrath was one of the worst books I've read too.
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Tom Sutpen
A for-real Socialist
708 Fans
11:44 AM on 08/17/2010
The educational system of this country is going to remain in a woeful state until they start assigning books like 'The Man With the Golden Arm' and 'Last Exit to Brooklyn' to our little monsters.
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aznurse
810 Fans
08:54 PM on 08/16/2010
What?! Where's "Silas Marner"??
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CPAwADD
My super power is sarcasm!
1363 Fans
06:46 PM on 08/16/2010
Tolkein, death to literature itself. That's a little harsh. But no one knows the name of that critic, his review all but forgotten.
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c-tom
Badges we don't need no stinking badges
161 Fans
03:58 PM on 08/16/2010
All great novels will cause emotional reactions love and hate. That's one of the reasons they are "great". That said not all six of the listed books are great novels.
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Tulka2
Solidarity. Courage. Humor.
2098 Fans
03:23 PM on 08/16/2010
All of these books are offensive to conventional people because they all point out the fact that what most people count as "good" is merely conventional.
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shthar
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155 Fans
02:33 PM on 08/16/2010
This is a good primer in what makes something, like first editions, valuable. It has to be unpopular when it comes out, and then get popular later.
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