Sacrilege!?

[Dr Terror]

What stories widely considered genre classics do you not like?

A couple from me to start off:

The White People - Machen
Pages From a Young Girl's Journal - Aickman

[dem]

Tricky one. I'm a bit reticent to commit because many stories I detested in my teens really appeal to me now, cases in point being most of William Sansom's contributions to the Pan Horror series - which I'd routinely skip - and John Keir Cross's The Other Passenger. I wasn't much taken with William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki stories either (they came as a disappointment after A Voice In The Night and The Derelict) but it's been a while and I might be more receptive to them now. Blackwood's The Willows really dragged for me too, but again, etc.

It's unlikely I'll reevaluate the works of Anne Rice, though, (well, she's considered 'classic' in some quarters, or was: maybe it ain't hip to like her these days because half the people who once raved about her so have zipped up), so I'll throw in Interview With The Vampire. Oh, and Chelsea Quinn Yawnbore's Count Saint Germain chronicles!

[sean]

Well, I'm not a big fan of M.R. James...

I remebered hearing a story by him on the old 'Spine Chillers' series (horror jackanory for kids - also featured 'The Red Room' by HG Wells, I think) and got hold of the collected stories, and didn't think much of them. A year or two back I thought I better give them another go, but still wasn't blown away by them. Sure, there's a few that are pretty good ('Oh Whistle', 'The Ash Tree' and 'Number 13' for instance) but on the whole they still left me unaffected.

[killercrab]

and Chelsea Quinn Yawnbore's Count Saint Germain chronicles! >>

Damn I spent 25p on Hotel Transylvania - thanks for the tip off ... not! ;D

ade

[carolinec]

.... and I have to admit to finding HP Lovecraft very difficult to read. It's tough going. If I'm not careful, I just drop off to sleep.

[jkdunham]

Pretty much anything by Stephen King.

[benedictjjones]

^the novels i'd agree with but i do like a lot of his shorter stuff.

ramsey campbell. im yet to read anything by him that i like or find memorable.

[eddempster]

I don't generally like Stephen King's style of writing (I'm talking about his novels), but I enjoyed 'Cell'.

Chuck Palahniuk (however the hell you say it or spell it), is know mostly for Fight Club, which I haven't read. I read Haunted, which is a novel comprising maybe a dozen individual short stories by him. There were a couple or three very good ones in the book, but after a while they got a bit samey, and I got the impression he was trying a little too hard to gross out his readers on occasions. It felt quite laboured to me towards the middle. This is another book I never actually finished - read just past half way then lost interest.

[redbrain]

I dislike Stephen King's writing a great deal. I've never been able to see what people like about it.

[coral]

Mr Redbrain hath the right sow by the ear, apart from the odd one, I've never been able to get the hang of him either.
May I add Phil Rickman? An added disappointment being the good cover blurb given to Rickman's Man In The Moss by the love of my life, James Herbert. Just goes to show, one man's something or other...is an other man's aardvark...or however it goes.

LATER oop, I just read Dr Terror's thread opener. Phil Rickman is not a classic of any kind, there I go not reading the question properly again. Another F

[benedictjjones]

@ed, i got about 3/4's of the way through 'haunted' and abandoned it as well.

[thecoffinflies]

Rubbish "classics"?

Easy:

The Great God Pan, Arthur Machen
Two Bottles of Relish, Lord Dunsany
Dracula, Bram Stoker - sure, it's a great book. But it's not THAT good; the last 300 pages are pretty bloody tedious and the climax happens offstage.
The Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe
anything by that portentous bore Neil Gaiman. Godawful!